Director of “MTZ-RIPA”: Our anthem makes somebody envious!

A delay of the match between “MTZ-RIPA” and “Smarhon” was registered because the anthem of the Minsk club was performed. The delay did not create any problems for Smarhon football players and “MTZ-RIPA” is going to continue the practice of performing their anthem before every match.
The match took place on June 10. The anthem of one of the teams was performed before the match – “MTZ-RIPA”. Journalists noticed that the inspector of the match registered the delay by 1 minute and 57 seconds in the protocol. It was said that the capital team would be fined for 10 base amounts for it.

The director of a capital club “MTZ-RIPA” Mihail Yuferau told ERB that there had not been any delay of the match during the performance of the team's anthem:

“The regulations do not specify what should be performed before matches. I personally checked it during the last game - the match was not delayed by a second. I do not think it was a violation of the regulations that the mach with “Smarhon” was delayed by a minute. Football matches always start a minute or two later than they are supposed to”.

According to the director-general of “Smarhon” Alyaksandr Loban, Smarhon players were not embarrassed by the anthem of “MTZ-RIPA”:

“The attitude to it was normal.  They should have just warned us they would sing the anthem. We just had to spend some more time in the stadium”.

The Smarhon club decided to follow the example of the capital club. It means that Belarusian football fans will be able to listen to one more football anthem soon:

“We are also working on an anthem. We have organized a contest for the best anthem for our country”.

The Belarusian Football Association explained ERB that matches could be delayed for different reason. Punitive measure should be discussed by the Administration for organization of matches. The press secretary of the Belarusian Football federation Syarhei Novysh says:

“A two-minute delay can be caused by different issues: objective or subjective. It can be caused by the weather or something else. It should be taken into account and a disciplinary committee should be organized in such cases”.

The Administration for organization of matches did not confirm the delay of the match. According to the head of the department Syarhei Vitushka, the inspector of the match between “MTZ-RIPA” and “Smarhon” did not put it down in the protocol:

“There was no official delay of the match. Nothing is mentioned in the inspector’s report”.

Despite of the ado about the anthem of “MTZ-RIPA”, Mihail Yuferau is sure that the capital team will continue singing their anthem before matches. The director-general of “MTZ-RIPA” thinks that the incident is a display of envy:

“There is no doubt that we will sing our anthem before every match. The time needed for it is not limited by the regulations. It is a tradition. Fans sing anthems of their favourite teams before matches – anthems of both teams. We are ready to perform the anthem of any team. We just think that the very fact made somebody envious”.