Sousa: Referee Forced Me To Put Idrizaj Back On

Paulo Sousa says the referee forced him to put Besian Idrizaj back onto the pitch to avoid last night’s match being abandoned.

Swansea City were down to just 7 men in yesterday’s Carling Cup tie, 3 players were sent off and Dobbie went off with a rib injury.

Idrizaj was struggling with a knock before the end of the game and it was obvious he couldn’t carry on playing. He also has a history of heart problems and has fainted twice during a football match. Therefore, Paulo Sousa thought it was safest to bring him off.

However, the referee forced Sousa to put Idrizaj back on the pitch to avoid him abandoning the game.

Sousa told the Evening Post:

‘The referee forced us to put him back on,’

‘Besian has not played for one year,’

‘He has had some problems with his heart and we only wanted to play him for 15 minutes. He then had a problem with his knee.

‘I didn’t want the game abandoned.’

‘I don’t like to speak about referees ? everyone can see what happened and I need to be careful.

‘I could say some words and get punished. I don’t want to talk about the reds, I will say only that we may appeal them depending on what the referee’s report says.

‘But we have been provoked and we reacted in a bad way. We try to play football and the players who want to play football need to be protected.

‘Our opponents were smart ? you cannot be provoked all the time and be kicked all the time without a yellow card or a foul.

‘The penalty was a good decision, but it’s the other problems we saw from the beginning that I would like everyone to write about.

‘We would be happy to have that referee again if he has better day. Everyone has a bad day.’