Matty Cash: Aston Villa defender booked after removing shirt to reveal support of family in Ukraine

Matty Cash’s Poland teammate Tomasz Kedziora remains in Kyiv

Sports Staff
Saturday 26 February 2022 16:21 GMT
Comments
(Getty Images)

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Aston Villa defender Matty Cash was shown a yellow card on Saturday for taking off his shirt as he displayed a message in support of his Poland international teammate caught up in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Tomasz Kedziora plays for Dynamo Kyiv and is thought to be still in the city with his family as the Russian army descends on the capital.

On Saturday morning, the Polish national team released a statement announcing they would boycott their World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final with Russia next month, and it also included a message of support for Kedziora.

After scoring a well-taken goal for Villa in their Premier League encounter at Brighton, Cash, whose mother is Polish and has earned two caps for the national team, celebrated by revealing a message on his T-shirt which read: “Tomasz Kedziora and family, stay strong bro.”

Taking charge of only his third Premier League match, referee John Brooks showed Cash a yellow card, a decision based on the league’s rule which states players must not take their shirt off when celebrating, designed to ensure sponsors are visible.

On Sky Sports, Soccer Saturday host Jeff Stelling was aghast, saying: ‘It’s a message for people in Ukraine, and he’s been booked for it! John Brooks is inexperienced Premier League referee. Hopefully when people come to their senses they [the Premier League] will just ignore that.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in