Oleg Sobutskyi, the honorary president of Agribusiness, told us about the conflict with the arbitrator Ivanov that led to his disqualification.
- "Everything about Ivanov was completely true. We knew that this match with Minaj would be a contractual one. Everyone already knows this - I've said it many times. I went after the match to deal with the situation with the refereeing, because people were really aggressive and wanted to beat him up. But no one touched him - I was already leaving.
Even during the match, it was announced that Ivanov was from Donetsk. At the time, he lived in Sloviansk. And one of our veteran guys, who was in the ATO, said to him: "Listen, I barely came back from Donetsk alive, and you are killing us on our field. Why is that?" And Ivanov replies: "What were you doing there and who called you there?" And that's where it all started.
If you really look into it, nobody beat Ivanov. I also covered him with myself, because it could have really come to a fight. Everyone knows what really happened. There is a war going on now, and you see how it all looks. And this referee continues to referee matches and carry out the instructions of his bosses.
For you to understand, Ivanov initially said nothing about the so-called beating. No one even heard him for 2-3 hours, everyone had already left and forgotten. It was only later that he was forced to blow this story out of proportion," Sobutskiy said in an interview with Tribuna.