The head coach of the Lviv football club, Vitaly Shumsky, received a yellow card for demanding that the referee speak Ukrainian.
This happened in a match between the Lviv team and the Kolos club, the Tribuna website reports.
So, Shumsky did not like that reserve referee Nikolai Krivonosov spoke to him in Russian. The judge regarded this as pressure, after which the main referee of the match, Viktor Kopievsky, showed the coach the card.
At the same time, Shumsky himself actually admitted that he shifted the conversation with the judge from a sports to a political plane.
“I want to communicate in Ukrainian, but they give me yellow cards for this. I can't figure out why I got the warning. I would like the fourth referee to explain to all of Ukraine why he asked to give me a yellow card. This is a precedent, it can’t be like that.
I went up to the fourth referee and told him something about the game. He started talking to me in Russian, and I asked him a question: “Why are you talking to me in Russian?” And he radioed to the main referee to give me a yellow card. I ask the main referee: “Why do I get a yellow card?” He didn't explain it to me. “I would like the entire team of referees to answer for all of Ukraine why they gave me a yellow card, because this cannot be,” Shumsky was indignant.
It is noteworthy that in this match the victory over the Lviv team was celebrated by Kolos from the village of Kovalevka, Kyiv region, who scored two unanswered goals.