EC

• Krondl told David Elleray and David Elleray wrote it down for his book Referee!. Krondl had officiated the World Cup qualifier between Bulgaria and Russia. He did a good job according to the observer Van der Kroft, but not according to the Russians. They thought Krondl should have awarded at least one penalty and should have sent off a Bulgarian player. In fact the Russian FA president called his Czech colleague (Galba?) asking him to remove Krondl from the international list at the end of 1997 and to not nominate him for the World Cup. The Czech FA president needed the Russian vote to get on the UEFA committee. Krondl claims that this is why he didn't go to the 1998 World Cup in France. (he stayed on the FIFA list for another year though)