"Then let's turn off the power."

No VAR because of a power outage? Horvath is furious

Sascha Horvath(Bild: GEPA)

“The ref tells me it has to be a penalty, but then suddenly there were no more images. From now on, we’ll just turn off the TV whenever there’s a controversial call against us,” LASK captain Sascha Horvath huffed in a Sky interview after the 1-2 loss to Sturm Graz.

What does he mean?
In Graz-Liebenau, there was a power outage in the closing stages of the game, which also affected the live broadcast of the match. 

Commentator Philipp Paternina immediately pointed this out. Later, the network also posted a statement on X: “Dear community, we regret the disruption in the final stages of the match due to a power outage during the live broadcast of the ADMIRAL Bundesliga.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing”
But Horvath wasn’t quite convinced and asked his interview partner, Jörg Künne: “Then why did the other lights go out?” “A backup generator,” replied the Sky reporter. The LASK captain: “Yeah, sure! But we also didn’t make good use of the half-spaces today; we played too slowly and made it easy for them. But we’re allowed to lose once in a while—maybe this is actually a good thing, so everyone around us can calm down a bit.”

Coach Dietmar Kühbauer saw it similarly, at least as far as the game was concerned, saying: “We let ourselves down more than anything else; we made a lot of simple mistakes. That played right into Sturm’s hands. We were actually the better team, but that doesn’t mean you have to win. My team showed who plays the far better soccer. But at the end of the day, only the result counts, and you have to say that Sturm played better and capitalized on our mistakes.”