AS Monaco’s Vice-President, Vadim Vasilyev, has been given a one-game ban for alleging that French referees have been biased in favour of club rivals Lyon.
Mr Vasilyev made the controversial claims after Monaco’s 3-1 defeat to Lyon on December 18. He repeated the same allegations in an interview with French sports paper L’Equipe, published 48 hours later.
“I wanted to denounce a particular context around Lyon matches which do not favour calmness … It’s the context around Lyon matches I denounce. I’m not the first to do it, a lot of people have talked about that before me,” Vasilyev told the publication.
The French Football League’s Disciplinary Commission said the one-game ban will come into force on February 14, preventing him from taking any part in the game. An additional one-match suspended ban will be activated should he infringe again.
Monaco will be making a Ligue 1 trip to Bastia on February 17. However, Vasilyev will be able to take part in the Monaco delegation that goes to England for the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie with Manchester City on February 21.
Tension between the French League and Monaco have run high in the past, particularly in the financial context, with a number of French clubs claiming that Monaco has an unfair advantage in being able to pay players’ salaries tax free.