UEFA to investigate Romanov's criticism of referee

VLADIMIR Romanov could face disciplinary action by both UEFA and the Scottish Football Association after making accusations against Scottish referees in general, and more specifically against Yuri Baskakov, the Russian official who sent off two Hearts players during the second leg of their Champions League qualifying tie against AEK Athens last month.

The lengthy statement was posted on the Hearts website yesterday afternoon. The club itself may therefore be the subject of action, although last night it appeared Romanov would be the focus of any investigation.

"We need to look further into these comments," UEFA's head of communications, William Gaillard, said. "I have passed the details to our disciplinary body for further analysis. If anyone makes a libellous comment about the governing body or a referee then we would investigate and prosecute. I assume the Scottish FA will also want to look at the statement because there are some pretty serious accusations."

Hearts aim to go on the offensive themselves, however, by making an official complaint to UEFA about the conduct of Baskakov. "Hearts have gathered documents with certain accusations concerning that referee and have sent an official complaint to UEFA," Romanov added last night. "Our next step is to wait for the answer."

It is understood the complaint will centre on remarks made by Baskakov in a pre-match conversation with Romanov and others as well as during the game in Athens, which Hearts lost 3-0 to go out on a 5-1 aggregate.

The SFA recently amended its regulations in a bid to ensure that those such as Romanov who hold no official post with a club can still come under its disciplinary procedures. Its general purposes committee will examine his remarks about Scottish referees on 24 October.

Romanov's disparagement was made in a section of his statement which addressed the football media directly. "You can't humiliate me," he said. "Fans see my fight with those puppets who pretend to support the Glasgow teams, but who are in fact just thinking about money which they're getting from fans buying their papers.

"Last season you didn't manage to protect the Scottish Cup and gave it to Hearts despite all the referees' efforts and intrigues. If you have already forgotten about it, I can then invite you all and come and see the Cup, which Hearts won.

"What you're trying to do is protect an Old Firm duopoly for 40 more years and fool the fans. I want to openly call it an agreement against fair football in Scotland. Still I'm glad you're acting so openly and we can see which positions you're protecting by publishing all those stories."

Asked about Romanov's statement, Valdas Ivanauskas said he did not want to be distracted from his preparation for tonight's match. "Maybe at some time in the future we'll talk about it," the Hearts coach stated.

Taken from the Scotsman