Jozsef Szabo: “There was a penalty, but Ceferin’s statement played a role” – Sport.ua

Former player and coach of Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukrainian national football team Joseph Szabo shared his opinions about the unassigned penalty in the last minutes of the game Ukraine – Italy (0:0).

“In the episode with Mudryk’s fall there was a 200% penalty. But Čeferin’s statement played a role. This is injustice. If such a violation occurred outside the penalty area, the referee would have recorded it. Mudryk won space from his opponent and he knocked him down. I watched a lot of replays – it’s a penalty, no question. Aleksander Čeferin should resign. We need to ask what he told the judges and what recommendations he had for them. Even if the defender played with his hand, they still wouldn’t want to notice it.

We can say that there are still people in the leadership in Europe who decide who should go further and who should not. This is far from a sporting principle. This is impossible, especially today, when Ukraine is in such a difficult situation. The judges clearly pulled Italy to the European Championships. Do Italians give more? Do they get more viewers? Why is this not the first time this attitude towards Ukraine has happened?! This is an outrageous case,” Szabo said.

Let us remind you that in the last minutes of the Ukraine-Italy match, Mikhail Mudrik received the ball in the Italian penalty area, but Brian Cristante immediately fouled him. The referee did not award a penalty and did not even go to watch the replay of the episode.