The Georgian interior ministry is investigating claims that Saturrday’s floodlight failure which caused the abandonment of Georgia’s EURO 2004 qualifier with Russia, was due to sabotage.
The match in Tblisi was abandoned at half-time with the scores goalless. The floodlights first stopped five minutes before half-time but ppower returned on and the first half was completed. However a second power failure, which was blamed on faulty electrical circuits, forced the referee to abandon the game.
Valeri Draganov, vice-president of the Football Union of Russia (RFS), said: “I would like to believe this was just a floodlight failure, despite many coincidences. If that was a planned act, then the whole situation has another meaning, and the consequences will be heavy. We will analyse all possible reasons for this failure.”
The floodlights first stopped five minutes before half-time but came back on and the first half was completed. However, no sooner had the players left the pitchÿthen there was a second power failure, which was later blamed on faulty electrical circuits.
