Drunks Steal Road Sign: VAR Referees Arrested for Dynamo Kiev-Rangers

Referees outside the box… of football. Bartosz Frankowski and Tomasz Musial they disappeared from the list of Dinamo Kiev-Rangers, the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Champions League, played on the evening of August 6 in Lublin. In their place, in the role of Var and Avar, Tomasz Kwiatkowski and Pawel Malec, called at the last minute because their colleagues had been arrested by the Polish police. The reason? Frankowski and Musial were wandering around town drunk. But it doesn’t end there, because together they also stole a road sign. Once handcuffed, the officers transferred them to a recovery center. The facts date back to the night between Monday and Tuesday, around 2 in the morning. The news was broadcast by the Polish channel Tvp Sport, which added more details to an already surreal story.

Drunks steal a street sign: arrested

At the time of the arrest, Frankowski (VAR assistant in Italy-Spain at the last European Championship) had a blood alcohol level of 1.7, while his colleague Musial had 1.8. The suspension was immediate by UEFA and the Polish Football Federation, which released a statement on the matter: “The Football Federation’s referees’ panel will conduct a detailed analysis of the situation. If confirmed, the panel of judges will ask the Federation’s general secretary to terminate the contracts with the judges. The case will also be referred to the Polish Football Federation’s disciplinary commission, which may decide to impose further disciplinary consequences”. UEFA has also launched an internal investigation. A particular situation, which however did not prevent the regular progress of the match, which ended 1-1. One wonders what the result would have been if the pair had not been arrested, with a slightly clouded-eyed VAR on the pitch.