Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match

Bartosz Frankowiski taking charge of a Champions League match. (Image: Getty.)

Champions League match officials Bartosz Frankowiski and Tomasz Musial have reportedly been suspended by the Polish Football Association after they were accused of stealing a road sign at 1.43am, hours before they were set to oversee Rangers' European clash with Dynamo Kyiv.

Polish outlet TVSport claim that the pair have been banned for five months, with an additional seven suspended, after they were said to have been caught by police in Scotland with a road sign in their possession.

The report claims that they were arrested in the early hours of the morning while intoxicated and they were then taken to a sobering-up centre.

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Senior Superintendent Kamil Golebiowski said: "At around 1:40am we received a report of three men carrying a road sign down the street.

"Police officers were dispatched to the scene. All of the men were intoxicated and had over 1.5 per milligrams of alcohol in their blood. They were taken to a sobering-up centre."

Lithuanian ref Donatas Rumsas was confirmed to lead the officials for Rangers' tie on August 6, with Frankowski and Musial listed as his VAR officials, but they were later removed.

Another top-flight Polish ref Tomasz Kwiatkowski was appointed to be the lead VAR official, with Pawel Malec as his assistant.

Tomasz Musial in charge of a Polish league match. (Image: Getty)

Rangers drew the game 1-1 to crash out of Champions League qualifying, having lost the first leg 2-0, dropping down to the Europa League where they will meet both Manchester United and Tottenham.

The Polish FA have also published a statement, which reads: "The Commission decided to:

- Recognise the liability of Bartosz Frankowski and Tomasz Musiał for the alleged act;

- Impose a basic penalty on each of the accused judges - a disqualification penalty of one year, partially suspending the execution of the above-mentioned disqualification penalty, i.e. each of the accused will serve the imposed disqualification penalty of five months, while the execution of the remaining part of the disqualification penalty, i.e. seven months, is suspended for a probation period of two years;

- Additionally impose a fine of PLN 25,000 (£4,000) on each of the accused."

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Frankowski is considered to be one of Poland's top referees, having officiated at Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, manning the VAR earlier this summer in Germany.

But he and Musiał have been forced to sit out this season's revamped The Champions League: League Phase, which has seen the traditional groups of six scrapped in favour of a league system.

Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match

Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match

Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match

Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match

Champions League officials 'banned for five months' due to incident before Rangers match