Dundalk were unlucky to be beaten in Belarus last week as they went down 2-1 in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier against BATE Borisov.
The Lillywhites did manage to bag a vital away goal which gives them a chance at qualification to the next round, but ahead of the match tonight at Oriel Park, manager Stephen Kenny has suggested that a lack of interest in the 2nd leg could be down to snobbery from those who ignore the League of Ireland:
Stephen Kenny on @DundalkFC game:"we're looking to take on a team that beat Bayern in group stage, we're looking to dominate them at home ..
— Paul O'Hehir (@paulohehir) July 22, 2015
Stephen Kenny @DundalkFC cont: "we can't help if people don't connect with that. Maybe there's some sort of innate snobbery there ...
— Paul O'Hehir (@paulohehir) July 22, 2015
Stephen Kenny @DundalkFC cont: "...from people who feel they've this great knowledge of world and European football....
— Paul O'Hehir (@paulohehir) July 22, 2015
Stephen Kenny @DundalkFC cont :" but maybe sometimes that's a lack of real football intelligence. People have this perception of the game."
— Paul O'Hehir (@paulohehir) July 22, 2015
Kenny also hit out at UEFA for completely ignoring an incident that should have seen their opponents star player suspended.
BATE's striker, captain, and Belarusian international Vitali Rodionov headbutted Dundalk left-back Dane Massey in the first-leg match last week, leaving Massey with a cut to his head, and although the incident was missed by the referee and his assistants, Kenny seemed sure that retrospective action would be taken.
Rodionov even issued a public apology to Massey, which most thought was an attempt to shorten a potential ban and allow the striker to participate in the latter rounds of qualification should BATE progress, but instead no action was taken whatsoever, which was puzzling to Stephen Kenny.
He issued a public apology to Dane which is most unusual. He was man enough to do that and in his statement he said he was ready to take whatever sanctions UEFA gave him.
What I took between the lines was maybe he was hoping if he progressed that his suspension would be limited ... but we had to read it ourselves on BATE’s website so we haven’t been notified and that’s quite puzzling.
We took the lead from the FAI on how to do it, but whether UEFA said it’s perfectly legitimate to headbutt somebody in a game?
Are there no sanctions for any club? It sets a precedent. Is everyone treated equally? Is there a level playing field between sizes of clubs or are there different rules?
How is there no sanction? I thought a suspension was an absolute formality.
Kenny also revealed that the unanimous opinion amongst the Dundalk players was that Rodionov was by far the Belarusians' biggest threat, so his absence from the return leg would have been a big boost.
Instead UEFA have completely ignored the situation, which is suspicious considering the public apology that Massey recieved and raises questions over the organisations treatment of teams from Europe's smaller leagues.
via IrishMirror.ie
