The former Dnipro coach, Spanish specialist Juande Ramos, revealed what prevented his team from winning the Ukrainian championship in the 2013/14 season.
Juande Ramos— We deserved to be champions that season (in the 2013/14 season Dnipro finished second, and the champion was Shakhtar, — ed.); we looked better than the others. But football-related factors, which were common at that time in Ukraine, did not allow us to win the title. At crucial moments in important matches, decisions were made that closed our path to the championship.
— Recently, reminiscing about those times, both the general director of Dnipro Andriy Stetsenko and team captain Ruslan Rotan said that they failed to become champions only because of refereeing. So, do you share the same opinion?
— I completely agree! We were at the finish line, but in the last 3−4 matches there were simply catastrophic refereeing decisions that did not allow us to become champions.
— One of those matches was the game against Chornomorets, when your clash with Roman Grigorchuk happened?
— Yes, yes, and that match too. I remember the game and the incomprehensible refereeing decision (referee Zhabchenko canceled a clean goal by Seleznyov — ed.). Such things should not happen in football.
— Then it was said that Grigorchuk apologized to you…
— Yes, he sent a message. He probably cooled down after the match and realized that the behavior was unacceptable (Grigorchuk ran to Dnipro's bench and expressed something to Ramos very emotionally and aggressively, — ed.). Or maybe someone advised him to write that message, to apologize.
Vadym Takhtarin
