One good guy, one bad guy:

The Football Association have complained to UEFA about the treatment of referee Mike Riley by a club president after he interrupted a UEFA Cup quarter-final to try to quell racist abuse.

Riley was called ‘a British homosexual’ by Levski Sofia club president Todor Batkov after he stopped their home tie against Schalke when the German side’s striker Gerald Asamoah was targeted by racist chants from the crowd.

The Leeds referee informed the fourth official who arranged for a message to be broadcast over the loudspeaker system calling for an end to the racist abuse.

He also subsequently informed Asamoah he would report the chanting to UEFA.

Schalke won Thursday’s first leg 3-1 in the Bulgarian capital and after the match Batkov launched a scathing attack on Riley, saying: ‘This British homosexual broke the game.’ (Story.)

I’m not fully sure of the extent of UEFA’s powers to punish the morons infesting the sport, but let’s hope they pull no punches with Batkov. Were I the Minister of Discipline for UEFA I’d pretty much nail him with everything that was explicitly allowed in the rules, then I’d start looking for gray areas I could “interpret” in to boot.

Cheers to the ref – and how often do you hear me saying that about a soccer official?

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