Champions League officials 'banned for 5 months' over Rangers incident | Football | Sport

Champions League referees Bartosz Frankowiski and Tomasz Musial have reportedly been suspended by the Polish Football Association after they were accused of stealing a road sign at 1:43am, just hours before they were due to officiate Rangers' European Cup match against Dynamo Kyiv.

Polish broadcaster TVSport claims the pair have been banned for five months, plus a further seven months suspended, after they were caught by police in Scotland with a traffic sign.

According to the report, they were arrested in the early hours of the morning while intoxicated and taken to a sobering-up center.

Chief Warden Kamil Golebiowski said: “At around 1:40 a.m. we received a report that three men were carrying a traffic sign along the road.

“Police officers were dispatched to the scene. All men were intoxicated and had a blood alcohol level of over 1.5 per mille. They were taken to a sobering-up center.”

Lithuanian referee Donatas Rumsas was confirmed as the referee for the Rangers' game on August 6 and Frankowski and Musial were listed as his VAR referees, but they were later removed.

Another top Polish referee, Tomasz Kwiatkowski, was appointed as the lead VAR official, with Pawel Malec as his assistant.

Rangers drew 1-1 and were eliminated from Champions League qualification after losing the first leg 2-0. This relegated them to the Europa League, where they will face Manchester United and Tottenham.

The Polish Football Association also released a statement saying: “The Commission has decided:

– to recognise the liability of Bartosz Frankowski and Tomasz Musiał for the alleged offence;

– imposition of a basic sentence on each of the accused judges – a disqualification sentence of one year with partial suspension of the execution of the above-mentioned disqualification sentence, i.e. each of the accused must serve the imposed disqualification sentence of five months, while the execution of the remaining part of the disqualification sentence, i.e. seven months, is suspended for a probationary period of two years;

– In addition, each of the defendants shall be fined PLN 25,000 (£4,000).”