Ukraine coach Oleg Blokhin slammed the officiating during his team’s 1-0 defeat to England at Euro 2012 on Tuesday night.
England took the lead through Wayne Rooney soon after half-time, thanks to some slack defending and goalkeeping, however the co-hosts thought they had equalised in the final 20 minutes – although the officials were not convinced.
New Shakhtar Donetsk signing Marko Devic darted inside the area and looped the ball over the goal line before John Terry acrobatically cleared before a definitive answer could be given, yet no goal was given.
Speaking to reporters after the match, an enraged Blokhin said: “The ball was 50 centimetres over the line.”
Blokhin later said he did not want to criticise the officials, before questioning the decisions to not give yellow cards to Terry and Andy Carroll, as well as pondering why so many officials are needed when they cannot get decisions right.
“Why do we need these five referees?” he asked.
The former Soviet Union forward continued to vent his frustration and began to turn on the media, effectively telling them he did not care what they write.
“Did you play the game?” he said. “You don’t like Blokhin? You can write what you want.”
Things got even more heated as the coach got up to leave to the room as a member of the press applauded him on his way out, with Blokhin seemingly thinking it was a sarcastic attempt to rile him.
Blokhin’s reaction was to ask the journalist to come outside with him for what he called a ‘man conversation’, to which the reporter duly declined, but not before rising from his chair.
