Uefa accused of using bias refs

By Harry Peart
BBC sports correspondent

The president of Romania's football federation, Mircea Sandu, has accused the sport's European ruling body, Uefa, of appointing referees biased against Romania and other teams from Eastern Europe.

The referees commission, he said, was appointing officials who made deliberate mistakes against the Romanian national team and other teams.

Uefa says the allegations are ridiculous

Mr Sandu said that several countries in the region shared the same feeling, including Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Uefa confirmed that a formal complaint and dossier had been presented to the Uefa president Lennart Johansson last week containing videos of matches.

Uefa spokesman Mike Lee said: "Any suggestion that there is any national or regional bias among the referees appointed by Uefa is completely unfounded. It is totally ridiculous."

He said that refereeing decisions were always a matter of debate and sometimes controversy, but should not be used to call into question the independence of Uefa referees.

He said it was widely recognised that the referees in Europe were the best in the world and were completely independent of any bias whatsoever.