""As a passionate soccer coach, I could disagree with the calls," Ohannesian told ESPN. "There were some questionable ones, but there was [other] stuff during the game. They were calling him 'buddy' and by his first name, and I was like, 'That's kind of weird.' I usually refer to the referees as 'sir.'""
""And so then I sent a message to U.S. Soccer and I was like, 'Hey, is this something that's protestable? Because this seems like a conflict of interest,' he said. 'And they were like, 'What?''""
""The replay has been ordered to protect the integrity of the competition based on the presence of a conflict of interest, as the referee was confirmed to be a recent player for Bellevue Athletic's second team, B2," the panel said in a statement."
Bellevue Athletic defeated Sharktopus FC 4-3 in a second-round U.S. Open Cup qualifying match. Sharktopus manager Leo Ohannesian noticed unusual familiarity between Bellevue players and the match referee and later discovered the referee had played for Bellevue's reserve team, B2. Ohannesian filed a protest with U.S. Soccer, which was processed for a $500 fee. The U.S. Open Cup adjudication and disciplinary panel ordered the match to be replayed in its entirety to protect the integrity of the competition. The panel clarified the decision did not allege any intentional influence on the match outcome.
Read at ESPN.com
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