First, failure in the municipal elections, and now – exclusion from the Lithuanian futsal national team camp. Such misfortunes befell Jonava Vikings captain Benas Spietini.
The Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) announced on Tuesday that it will suspend the football player indefinitely, he will not participate in the nearest camp of the Lithuanian futsal national team, during which the Lithuanians will play two matches against the Czech national team in the selection for the world championship.
This is how the LFF reacted to the report of the “Kaunas Žalgiris” futsal club regarding the behavior of Jonava “Vikingai” and Lithuanian futsal national team member B. Spietinis.
The club reported that late on Monday evening, a footballer from Jonava arrived in Kaunas and attacked the Brazilian footballers of “Kaunas Žalgiris” living here.
According to the club, the players of the Lithuanian champions were insulted by messages and invited to clarify the relationship outside, and when they did not respond, the windows of the residence were broken, the door was kicked and spit on. B. Spietinis, according to the club, did not act alone.
On the same evening, “Kauno Žalgiris” turned to the police, a pre-trial investigation was launched into the actions of the Jonava team player, the club reports.
“There is no way we can justify this behavior of a football player and we immediately took action – the football player is removed from this national team camp and will not play in the national team.
During the initiated investigation, we will seek to find out all the circumstances of the mentioned event and make decisions that would be a good precedent for the future and help avoid similar situations”, LFF President Edgaras Stankevičius commented on the situation.
Jonava’s “Vikings” lost to the defending champion “Kaunos Žalgiris” in the finals of the Lithuanian Futsal A League this year and were left with silver medals. The last match of the final series up to three victories took place on Sunday in the Kaunas sports hall.
Earlier this year, B. Spietinis unsuccessfully participated in municipal council elections. The football player sought the mandate of a member of the council in the list led by Remigijaus Osauskas, but he did not receive the favor of the voters and did not enter the Jonava district council.
The Vikings’ answer
On Tuesday, “Vikingai” released its statement regarding the information published by “Kaunas Žalgiris”: “Vikingai” club is not responsible for the players after the end of the season, but condemns illegal measures, aggressive behavior, insulting honor.
We negatively evaluate such actions, if this was the case, as Žalgirisfutsal writes. But I would like to draw attention to the provocations of the Zalgiris players that took place throughout the season, which were not stopped by either the judges or the representatives of the federation, this time the provocations were transferred to social networks, a provocative photo was obtained <…>
A decision on the incident will be made after examining all the facts, as there is mistrust and distortion of the facts presented by Zalgiriofutsal. The Vikings promise to look at the current situation and unequivocally answer and react to this incident! We believe it’s time for a change, we play futsal and we’re not in a circus!! Regards SMK “Vikinga”.
