Croatian football coach Ivan Leko, who took a point away from Belgian champion Union Saint-Gilloise with Gent on Saturday night, lashed out at the referees, arguing that they should have canceled the home team’s equalizing goal for the final 1-1.
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“Usually I’m very calm, I love referees and their work, and I know that it’s normal to make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but what happened tonight is incredible,” said 47-year-old Leko at a press conference in Brussels, when a local journalist commented that he had never seen him so angry.
Gent, which is in the middle of the championship table, took the lead in the 4th minute with a goal by winger Matisse Samoise. The entire match was played by striker Wilfried Kanga, who last season played for Dinamo Zagreb, and this season scored four goals and four assists in a total of 15 games for Gent.
“They drink and wait for the weekend”
Union Saint-Gilloise, the current champion and leading team of the championship, entered the second part with much more determination, pressing hard on the visitors at the rainy Joseph Marien Stadium. In the 77th minute, Gent’s players failed to clear the ball twice during the host’s attack, and then it reached Union’s defender Kevin Mac Allister, who sent it into the net from close range.
Referee Simon Bourdeaud’hui stopped the game, and the VAR room informed him that the situation was clear, and he conceded the goal. Leko, who led his team energetically and with lively gestures during the entire match, reacted angrily at the touchline claiming that Mac Allister had played with his hand at the beginning of the action. In the referee’s stoppage time, while new attacks by the home team continued, he received a yellow card after a protest during which he believed that the end should have already been played.
“On the one hand, I want to apologize to the referee for my reaction, but on the other hand, I don’t want to, because he said that after the match he checked the controversial situation and that it was clear that he was playing with his hand,” said Leko. “He said he was sorry he didn’t go and watch the VAR tape. And I wonder what people are doing in the VAR room. They’re drinking and waiting for the weekend. They’re messing with other people’s jobs and careers,” he added.
“They can decide what they want, but this was a disgrace”
Immediately after the referee’s final whistle, Leko argued with the captain of Union Saint-Gilloises on the pitch, and also briefly with the referee, and then congratulated the rival players by extending his hand.
“Union Saint-Gilloise deserved a goal based on their play and pressing, but you have to be blind not to see what happened. The referee’s choice was not to go and look at the VAR footage. And now, when he says he made a mistake, what do I get from that? What do I get from the ‘I’m sorry’ team, nothing, there is no ‘I’m sorry’ now,” said Leko.
He stated that he usually doesn’t say much, and that he never will, but that he is not afraid to say how he saw the situation.
“They can decide what they want, but this was a shame,” he pointed out.
“We should be talking about football and other things, but when someone uses body language to show ‘friend stay there, we checked and everything is fine’, and at the end he says he’s sorry…” he added.
Home team coach David Hubert disagreed with Leka’s assessment that there was handball before the goal was scored, and believes that the situation was clean.
“But I understand (Leke’s) reaction, I respect him a lot, and it’s normal for him to defend his team,” Hubert said, adding that Union Saint-Gilloise could have scored a few more goals.
Leko said that his team came looking for an opportunity from the counterattack, so the point is good for him after all. He was also unhappy that the referee did not judge the alleged fouls by Union’s tall striker Promise David towards the end of the game.
“I understand that Union is the champion, that they are playing at home, that we are currently not on the same planet, they are high and we are low, so it is good that they win. But, my friend, it can’t be like that,” concluded Leko.
He took over the management of Gent this summer after leaving the Standard Liege. He was the coach of Hajduk in 2023.
