Evans’ wife shame over racist tirade at Romanian referee
NORTHERN Ireland midfielder Corry Evans was forced to apologise yesterday after his wife launched an astonishing attack on the Romanian referee who awarded a penalty against him in the World Cup play-off defeat to Switzerland.
Ovidiu Hategan harshly penalised Evans for handball at Windsor Park, allowing the Swiss to take a crucial one-goal advantage into tomorrow’s second leg in Basle. Hategan also booked the Blackburn Rovers player, meaning he will miss the game through suspension.
Evans’ wife Lisa reacted furiously by posting a foul-mouthed message on Twitter, saying: ‘Romanian gypsy c***!!! And to actually think Northern Ireland has probably homed one of his smelly relatives!! Ungrateful t***!!’
She later deleted the tweet and closed down her account but 27-year-old Evans — who branded the referee’s decision ‘disgraceful’ after the game — apologised in a statement issued by the Irish FA.
It read: ‘On behalf of my wife, I would like to apologise unreservedly for the content and language contained in the tweet that she issued last night.
‘The comments were published in the heat of the moment and are not representative of her views.’
Throwing away possession of the moral high ground was the last thing the Northern Ireland squad needed as they flew out to Switzerland yesterday, with a burning sense of injustice over the penalty controversy and a determination to salvage their World Cup dream.
‘We have nothing to lose now,’ said manager Michael O’Neill ahead of tomorrow’s second leg at St Jakob-Park.
‘We are a little bit of a victim and we have to use it in that way. We will see how the Swiss deal with it on their home territory. We have to deal with the decision and put it to the back of our minds and use it as a motivation.’
IT was reminiscent of the Thierry Henry handball which robbed the Republic of Ireland in a play-off eight years earlier. On that occasion the officials did not spot Henry clearly handling the ball in the build-up to William Gallas’ decisive strike, and the Football Association of Ireland was unsuccessful in its request to FIFA to have the match replayed.
Northern Ireland defender Jonny Evans claimed Hategan’s call in Belfast was ‘worse’ because he interpreted something differently rather than failing to spot it.
However, Sportsmail understands the Irish Football Association has no plans to follow the FAI’s route, not least because there is still a second leg to play.
They had sympathy from Keith Hackett, the former head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited body, over both the penalty and the decision to only book Fabian Schar in the fifth minute.
O’Neill felt Schar should have been dismissed for a wild lunge on Leeds winger Stuart Dallas, which forced him off with an injury that has made him doubtful for tomorrow, and Hackett agreed.
‘Rarely do you see a referee at international level make one glaring major error in a game, let alone two,’ Hackett wrote on you-are-the-ref.com.
‘Referee Ovidiu Hategan produced two surprises, nasty surprises in this crucial first-leg play-off game.
‘The first was his reaction to a reckless challenge with excessive force, which clearly endangered the safety of an opponent. Instead of producing a red card for Switzerland’s Fabian Schar, he showed weakness by pulling out of his pocket a yellow.’
On the penalty incident, Hackett said: ‘It was not a deliberate handball and, to the amazement of everyone, the biggest and most disappointing surprise of the night was the referee pointing to the penalty mark. Oh dear, at this level no referee wants to deliver such a massive error.’
Evans was booked for the handball, thus ruling him out of the second leg, and the IFA is unable to appeal that.
Both the caution and penalty decision may have been overturned had video assistance been available, as it was for England’s friendly with Germany last night.
‘I spent three hours in a video conference with FIFA the other week on VAR (video assistant referee) and when you see what happened, you would certainly be an advocate of it,’ said O’Neill.
Stoke winger Xherdan Shaqiri warned that Northern Ireland will be more vulnerable if they go for broke against a dangerous Swiss side already looking forward to a World Cup celebration.
‘Northern Ireland will have to play more offensively in Basle,’ said Shaqiri. ‘They played too defensively in the first leg.
‘They have to score to try to get to the World Cup but that will mean it is more open for us.
‘It’s going to be a nice party when we qualify. We can celebrate. But we have to do it. We have taken one step to the World Cup.’