Liberecký’s Mészáros finished the game. Will the legs break now? does not understand the statement of the referees’ commission

Mészáros admits that he was unlucky in the match against Sparta (1:3). “I tape my ankles for the matches, which helped a lot because I have “only” damaged ligaments and a rather large swelling, which, thank God, is slowly healing. However, I have nothing broken. We will see in the next few days how the ankle will respond to the treatment. I believe that I won’t have such a long break,” says Karol Mészáros, adding that he no longer expects to jump into the match in the Slovan jersey.

He didn’t get on the field until the 84th minute against Sparta. In the fifth minute of regulation, Oydra sent him to the ground with a raw slide. Referee Dominik Starý awarded the foul with a yellow card. The commission of judges, headed by Radek Příhoda, called the verdict correct in its assessment. “In our opinion, it’s a pure yellow card, not a red. This is not a borderline situation either. He hit the opponent with the instep, not the sole,” explained commission vice-chairman Libor Kovařík.

Mészáros does not understand this statement. “I don’t know what footage they had available. In the first moment I was sure it must be a red card. Of course, fighting is part of football, but I felt him hit me on the right leg. You can clearly see that he hit me after the ball was played… If we only punish this with yellow cards, I don’t know where it will lead. So will the legs be broken now? I don’t know, I’ve been feeling weird lately. The players’ health should be protected and if they expressed themselves like that… Let everyone make up their own mind about it,” the two-time Slovak champion with Slovan Bratislava shakes his head.

The foul reminded him of a similarly brutal tackle in the cup duel between the same opponents, when Liberec’s Varfolomejev took down Daňko and the referee only reprimanded him. The difference is that Mészáros foul bounced off with an injury. “Such insidious interventions without the intention of playing the ball simply do not belong in football. Varfolomeyev is a young boy, he got carried away by emotions. He certainly should have been punished with a red card, but so should Vydra,” noted Mészáros.

The rough and stupid choreo of the home team, which before the match with Slavia, hung a banner with the inscription “Go to it like a young man!”, reminding of Varfolomej’s intervention, came back to Liberec like a boomerang.

Former experienced referee Karel Hrubeš also commented on Vydra’s foul on Mészáros in the Přímák program on Sport.cz. “I have to say that after watching this moment for the first time I had to cover my eyes because I hurt for the player Mészáros, the tackle of the young Vydra, who went to the opponent Mészáros with absolutely no respect for the health of the opponent and almost ended his career, is a moment where the VAR should have intervened and recommended a monitor review. Nobody wants to see such moments on the pitch,” he said.

“When I asked the referee right away on the field what more should be red, he told me that he does not deal with this foul and will not even return to it, because it was only after the penalty save that he deals with. That’s why I found it strange after the match when I heard his statement that VAR had examined it and recommended to leave the yellow. Probably only he himself probably knows how it was… In any case, it is strange that the referee’s commission then issues a statement without at least finding out the health of the player after the procedure,” concluded Meszáros, whose contract under Ještěd expires after this season and perhaps the match with Sparta was the last for him in the Slovan jersey.