The head coach of the Romanian national team, Mircea Lucescu, commented in an outraged tone on UEFA’s decision following the match of the Nations League Romania — Kosovo.
Mircea LucescuRecall that in the compensated time of the second half of this match, when the score was 0:0, the Kosovo national team, citing insults directed at them on political grounds from the stands, left the field. As a result, UEFA awarded Romania a technical victory with a score of 3:0, but at the same time fined the Romanian football federation 128 thousand euros due to the behavior of the fans and obliged the Romanian national team to play the next home match in front of empty stands.
“3:0 was a mandatory decision because it is clearly stated in the regulations. A team leaving the field is punished with a loss of 0:3. But this should have happened not now, but 15 minutes after the incident. So it turns out that the Kosovo team humiliated us: they demonstratively leave, and we after that sit for hours in the locker room, not knowing what to do. This is the first point.
The second point. We were punished very harshly from a financial point of view. Not only do we still have to pay a fine in this situation, but we will also play the match without spectators. We will not receive the money that could have gone to children’s and youth teams.
It’s abnormal to give due credit to a team that leaves the field and claims that its image is more important than the result. In fact, the Kosovo national team created political behavior out of nothing. They simply decided to draw attention to themselves as a country.
It turns out that now any team can do the same. Kosovo should have just been punished without any fines. But for some reason, we are punished here too! Our entire team felt humiliated, while our opponents were calmly drinking beer and eating pizza in their locker room at that time,” Lucescu said in a comment to Pro TV.
