According to Mehr news agency, Esteghlal head coach Ricardo Sapinto told the club’s official media about the rumors about his talks with the refereeing team after the match: “These words make me sad.” I clearly remember the conversations I had with the refereeing team. I said to the refereeing team, “Why were most of your decisions against our team and why did you not catch some clear fouls in our team’s favor?” Why did you announce only 5 minutes of overtime, while the game had more overtime and in the same extra time, the game was stopped for minutes that you did not count. “We didn’t deserve this and you did your job very poorly.”
He added: In addition, I believe that a penalty for Esteghlal was ignored in this match, and the mistake that led to the match goal was not a mistake at all.
Esteghlal head coach added: All the conversations I had with the referee was what I explained, and the remarkable thing is that all my words with Payam Heydari and his assistants were in English, not Portuguese, and you can ask him if you ever disrespected him. I did? Definitely not.
In the end, Sapinto said: I always respect all judges and have a good relationship with them; Also with Payam and his brother Bijan Heydari. As I said in the press conference before the game, Payam Heydari is a good referee, but he was not good enough in this game and his mistakes had an impact on the result.