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On Monday, Bayern Munich's president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge expressed concern about the referee appointed for Wednesday's Champions League match against AC Milan, Yuri Baskakov.
"We were unpleasantly surprised that a Russian, and even a very inexperienced one like this, will referee the match," Rummenigge said in an interview with a German sports news agency.
"Last year, another Russian made inappropriate calls against us. I hope this time there will be no negative impact," the German reminisced about last year's 4-1 defeat in the quarterfinals against AC Milan.
Rummenigge did not hide his surprise at the appointment of J. Baskakov and even discussed this issue with UEFA officials.
J. Baskakov, who has held a FIFA category for seven years, officiated in four Champions League matches this season, as well as in the 2008 European Championship qualifier between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece. His last match was a month ago in the UEFA Cup match between Braga and Tottenham.
This referee is already well known to Lithuanian football fans - in March 2005, he showed a red card to Lithuanian defender Marius Stankevicius in the World Cup qualifier between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lithuania, and last year he sent off two players from the Lithuanian Edinburgh Hearts club in the Champions League qualifying match.
