Romanov blames Russian referee

AEK ATHENS 3
HEARTS 0

VLADIMIR Romanov promised last night that Hearts would be back in the Champions League after seeing his team go out 5-1 on aggregate to AEK Athens in the Olympic Stadium. The Scottish club's owner was wholehearted in his praise of his team - and disparaging about their opponents and the Russian referee - after a 3-0 second-leg defeat in which two Hearts players, Julien Brellier and Neil McCann, were sent off.

"Football should be about football, and not turned into a show thanks to the referee," said Romanov, whose team now drop into the first round of the UEFA Cup while their conquerors go through to the group stages of the Champions League. "AEK might struggle in the group stages. There was not a Greek player on that field - other than [Takis] Fyssas [of Hearts] who I would buy for my team.

"Our team gave a tremendous performance after so many injuries and illnesses," he continued. "We played with those, but still gave AEK a very hard match.

"Of course we will be back in the Champions League. If we can fight the way we did today in these circumstances, imagine what we can do if fully fit and the referee is not from Moscow. I would have stopped my football investment if Hearts ever played the way AEK played tonight."

It is true that the Athenian side squandered a number of chances, but they were still by some way the better side, as the Hearts coach, Valdas Ivanauskas, later accepted. Romanov's comments - he did not expand on the remark about the referee being a Muscovite - were clearly motivated by sour grapes, and were in stark contrast to his previously reported grandiose suggestions that the aim was for Hearts to win the Champions League within three years.

The highest they can aim for this season is now the UEFA Cup, with the group stages following the first round. Having reached those group stages two years ago with a far less illustrious squad, they will be under serious pressure to get there again by winning their first-round tie, even though a number of tough opponents could lie in wait.

Hearts' aim now will be to improve their form between now and the UEFA Cup tie - and to decrease the injury list. Their hopes of fielding something close to a first-choice line-up had been dashed when Edgaras Jankauskas and Calum Elliot were deemed to be only fit enough to make the bench, and Michal Pospisil failed a fitness test and was ruled out altogether. With Roman Bednar having been left behind in Edinburgh because of a foot injury, Ivanauskas chose to start the inexperienced Jamie Mole as his sole striker.

Mole acquitted himself well, as did Paul Hartley on his first start back from injury. Once Brellier had been sent off for a second yellow card, that was the game up, according to Ivanauskas. "I think everyone in Scotland, and in other countries, saw how we played," the coach said. "I said before the game we would have chances - and we played with heart and did have chances.

"The referee .... I don't want to say. It was unbelievable what he did in such an important game."

The sending-off of Brellier for a second yellow followed a first which was issued for his wearing an ear-ring. Ivanauskas complained that the referee had talked to the Frenchman and other players before the game, explaining that items of jewellery were acceptable if taped up, and that the official did not mention the ear-ring.

"He looked at every player - no problem. He made a joke at the first yellow card. The second" - for an elbow up in an aerial challenge - "is not even possible as a foul in basketball.

"My players gave 110 per cent and after 28 minutes the referee made the game over [with the dismissal of Brellier]. It's a joke. I saw in the first half AEK players also with rings not taped over."

McCann's straight red for a two-footed tackle was not merited either, continued Ivanauskas. "It was a foul. It was a normal football foul. The referee says it's red, for me it's not. I have my opinions, but I don't say them.

"Congratulations to AEK. Yes, they were the better side. But the sending-off of Julien cost us the chance to win the game."

McCann felt his tackle merited a booking at worst. "I thought it was a 50-50," said the winger, "maybe a yellow card at worst. The referee started shouting about how many games I would get. I was asking him if it merited a straight red. He said he would make sure I was punished."

Asked for a reaction to Ivanauskas' remarks, the AEK coach, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, said: "I won't make a comment about a colleague. I will say over the two matches AEK were better. We played the first leg very well and deserved our win, and in the second we weren't brilliant but we were dignified on the field. We tried to win all the time and I think we deserved to qualify. I don't want to comment about the rest."

Taken from the Scotsman