Russian commentator walks out of football match after refereeing blunders

There are days when a performance of a team or refereeing decisions forces fans to pull their hair out in despair. The supporters go on a rant, rue how their favourite club or country have disappointed them. There is banter and then, there is anger. But they are fans and such responses are expected. However, in Russia, even commentators aren’t that behind. According to a report on BBC, during a first division match between Torpedo Vladimir and Tekstilshchik Ivanovo in Russia, commentator Vladimir Nikolsky lost his cool and asked the television viewers to “watch the football without a commentator.” You must be wondering why? Well, at the 64th minute, Ivanovo’s goalkeeper Alexei Smirnov knocked over the opposition striker in the 18-yard box. It seemed like a penalty to the naked eye but referee Pyotr Miroshnichenko thought otherwise and awarded a free kick outside the box to Vladimir.

“Referees are humans too, they make mistakes” are some of the most common arguments when incidents like this occur. But Nikolsky was already enraged. Just as he was lamenting the state of the officials, a defender punched, yes punched, the free kick away to infuriate Nikolsky even more. The report adds that he went on a two-minute rant, during which he labelled Miroshnichenko as a “disgrace to Russian football” and, as mentioned earlier, left no choice to the fans but continue watching the match without a commentator. The match eventually ended in a 1-1 draw. Nikolsky, incidentally, works for Torpedo as part of local league rules, which say that the teams must arrange the broadcast services of their matches themselves. He also said after the match that he had no regrets about his reaction and instead he was proud that he could control his anger by managing not to swear. “I become emotional when I see that our team is being hurt,” he was quoted as saying to Russian RT. Nikolsky was also backed by team’s fan club and said that “if Nikolsky is punished, the club and the fans will support him. Nikolsky did everything right.”