In a surprising turn of events, two Polish VAR officials were reportedly arrested early Tuesday morning, just hours before their scheduled duties for the Champions League third qualifying round match between Dynamo Kyiv and Rangers. Bartosz Frankowski and Tomasz Musial, set to serve as head VAR and assistant VAR respectively, found themselves in trouble with the law after allegedly stealing a road sign in Lublin.
According to Polish reports, the incident occurred around 1:43 a.m. when the two men were stopped by police while carrying a road sign down the street. Both officials were reportedly intoxicated at the time. Following their arrest, they were taken to a sobering-up center to recover.
Lublin City Police Senior Superintendent Kamil Gołębiowski confirmed the arrest, telling TVP Sport, “At around 1:40 a.m., we received a report of three men carrying a road sign down the street. Police officers were dispatched to the scene. All of the men were intoxicated and had over 1.5 per mille of alcohol in their blood. They were taken to a sobering-up center.”
VAR Officials have been replaced prior to UCL match
Due to the incident, Frankowski and Musial have been removed from their VAR duties for the match. Tomasz Kwiatkowski and Pawel Malec have been assigned as their replacements.
The match will be refereed on the field by a Lithuanian team consisting of Donatas Rumsas as the main referee, with Aleksandr Radius and Dovydas Suziedelis serving as assistant referees. Robertas Smitas will act as the fourth official at Arena Lublin.
UEFA has been contacted for further comment on the situation. The unexpected turn of events has certainly cast a shadow over what was to be an important Champions League fixture.