How can a Hungarian-Romanian referee whistle the Czech Republic when our loss helps both teams? Even fans abroad are wondering

First of all, it must be said that the Czechs cannot make excuses only for the referees, they did not deservedly advance from the group because they were among the weakest teams in the tournament. However, the aftertaste of the special referee nomination lingers.

Yes, the Czechs are deservedly not advancing to the eighth finals. With one point and such a game, nothing much can be invented, Ivan Hašek’s charges were indeed, together with Scotland, among the weakest teams of the tournament.

Still, they could have won against Turkey and advanced. But the whole game fell apart like a house of cards when Antonín Barák saw a red card in the 20th minute and the Czechs went down to ten.

The sending off was unquestionable, Barák had to take a shower for his two fouls. What was strange was what happened afterwards. Kenan Yildiz saw a yellow card in the 37th minute for a harsh foul on Robin Hranac, for which he could have gone straight to the locker room.

But just a minute later he elbowed Vladimir Coufal in the face and should have seen a second yellow card. Referee Istvan Kovacs, however, incomprehensibly did not even blow the whistle for a foul.

In the 82nd minute, Kovacs then again incomprehensibly stopped Jan Kuchta with his whistle in the middle of the action, while the Czech striker then managed to score.

However, by whistling earlier, the referee made it impossible for VAR to review the whole situation. In disputed situations, however, referees are supposed to let the action finish and wait for the video verdict. Kuchta pushed Kadioglu cleanly and scored a regulation goal.

Czech Republic’s loss will help Hungary

We’ll stop with Istvan Kovacs for a moment. The Romanian referee has a Hungarian passport because his father is from Hungary. Why is this important? Because a win for the Czech Republic would knock Hungary out of the tournament. At the same time, Romania needed a draw in the match to go to Slovenia and not the Netherlands.

Georgia threw in the fork afterwards, but Kovacs couldn’t have known that. And with the red card forgiven for the Turks and the goal overturned so that it could not be examined by VAR, the whole situation looks very strange.

Even fans abroad are defending the Czechs. “Why is Istvan Kovacs whistling the Czech Republic-Turkey game when he has dual citizenship and a Czech win will eliminate the Hungarians? This is a clear clash of conflicts, which was proven by the ‘soft’ red for the Czechs and the ‘no’ red for the Turks,” a user named Ernest Moss said online.

“Istvan Kovacs is so bad. I feel so sorry for you Czechs, really sorry. It’s terrible,” wrote Finnish fan Patrik Boman on the X network.

English fan Steve Harrison then criticised the referee’s overall performance. “Istvan Kovacs is making his last game at the Euro all about himself, he must be the main character. Probably the worst performance by a referee you’ll ever see.” Another English fan agreed: “Kovacs just totally ruined the game after the first half. What an idi**a,” the fans didn’t understand.

Source: X, UEFA