The match against Turkey in the Euro 2020 qualifiers will be one Czech fans and players won’t easily forget. Ivan Hašk’s team was playing for their group stage advancement, but after just twenty minutes, Antonín Barák was sent off with a red card due to a foul.
While István Kovács deserved his yellow cards for two bookings, the controversy continued when he only issued a yellow card to Yildiz for stepping on Robin Hranáč’s ankle and didn’t even caution him for elbowing Vladimír Coufal in the face. The most contentious moment was when Jan Kuchta scored a goal that Kovács disallowed due to an alleged foul, despite Kuchta clearly not handling the ball.
The fan backlash against Kovács on social media was fierce, with one of his supporters from Carei even being called an 'exhibitionist with a whistle.' However, it seems he wasn't done making headlines. After a long break from international football, he returned to the scene in August for matches involving Lille against Fenerbahçe and Molde, as well as Elfsborg.
Kovács was given his first chance to referee an international match between Croatia and Scotland. Despite his reputation as a controversial official, he managed to avoid issuing any red cards during the game, only showing four yellow cards in total, two for each team. The most notable moment came when he allowed an own goal by Jakic that was later confirmed by VAR.
While Croatia celebrated their second victory and Scotland remained winless after three matches, fans of both teams couldn't blame Kovács too much for the outcome.
