Romanian FIFA referee Ovidiu Hatsegan recalled how he refereed the Champions League group stage match between CSKA Moscow and Manchester City and why it ended in a scandal.

The meeting was held in Moscow on October 23, 2013 and ended with a score of 2:1 in favor of the “citizens”.

– The game between CSKA and Manchester City ended in a big scandal. What really happened then?

— Yes, I judged this game. So it was 2014? No, 2013. Wow, it’s been 10 years since then. How quickly time flies. And then a situation happened that Yaya Toure was offended that someone was shouting something to him from the stands and demanded to stop the match.

Was there anything to do with racism? Looks like he got slammed? Sounds resembling monkey hooting were heard from the stands …

– Yes, he wanted to stop the game because of this, called on his team to leave the field.

– I understand that the decision to stop the game should have been taken by the chief referee? Why wasn’t she stopped?

– It is impossible to stop matches every time if someone shouts from the stands to someone that he does not like. It’s even hard for me to imagine that it started then. Then not a single football match would have been played to the end.

– The next day, the entire English press criticized the work of your entire judicial team. There was probably not a single publication that would not accuse of racism …

– Yes, the English journalists simply smashed me then, as if I didn’t referee the game on the field myself, but sat on the stadium’s podium and insulted Yaya Toure. He, by the way, was also very offended by me. That just did not write about me then. That I sold myself to the Russians for a lot of money, that I myself support racism. Although City won that match and took three points.

– It turned out as if the UEFA referee supported racism?

– There are clear recommendations from UEFA when to stop the match. And I followed them. The referee cannot keep track of who and what is saying in the stands. Yes, we can stop the match if the lights go out, if one of the players becomes ill on the field, in extreme cases, if we see that there are riots, fights in the stands, something is burning strongly and poses a physical threat to life of people. In addition, in addition to our referee team, there is also a UEFA delegate, a UEFA inspector. Decisions to stop a match are usually taken jointly.

– I heard that later even the then UEFA President Michel Platini supported that decision not to stop the game and said that it was the right one?

– This scandal has reached the very top of UEFA. But everyone there understood that any judge acts strictly according to the rules, which we must adhere to. And this regulation is being developed by UEFA itself, – Euro‑Futbol.Ru quotes Khatsegan.