Referee Who Used Fan's Phone to Review Decision Gets Life Ban

Referee Who Used Fan's Phone to Review Decision Gets Life Ban

Rene Otinga
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:12 PM
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  • Nemanja Matic expressed his support towards a Serbian referee who received a ban for checking for a match incident in a fan’s phone
  • The match official decided to check footage on a fan’s device before overturning an initial decision
  • It has since been reported that the ref has been banned by Serbian football chiefs

Roma star Nemanja Matic has come out in a passionate defence of a Serbian referee who came under scrutiny for basing a match decision on a replay from a fan’s phone.

Stefan Lazovic has reportedly received a ban for the rather humorous incident where he gave an initial decision, only to overturn it after being convinced otherwise by a phone replay.

The viral video has since taken social media by storm, but most of the fans saw the funny side to it as they quickly pointed out that it was ‘VAR on a budget’.

But The Sun soon reported that the referee had landed himself in trouble for his actions, and had received a life ban.

This has since caused outrage online as fans came to the fierce defence of the match official.

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An Instagram post from account ftbl.serbia stated:

"Support for Stefan Lazovic! Why should only he suffer, why such a rigorous sentence, why a lifetime ban from trial?

"How is it possible that there is no penalty for the delegate and all other authorities from the responsible FS of that district?

"How could the match be allowed to be played without one assistant referee?! Who is responsible here? Why does Stefan's spear break?

Matic, who left Manchester United for Roma in the summer, also reacted with a two hands raised emoji, seemingly agreeing with the points made from the post.

Authors
Rene Otinga photo
Rene Otinga
Rene Otinga is a sports journalist with over eight years of working experience in digital media. Rene's experience includes working as a Copywriter at X News Kenya and TUKO.co.ke.