Former Chelsea right-back Dan Petrescu, now coach of Russian Premier League side FC Kuban, has been given a six-match touchline ban and fined $1,500 for shoving a referee, the Russian Football Union said Friday.
Referee Vitaly Meshkov sent Petrescu to the stands during a 1-1 draw with Dynamo Moscow after Kuban were refused a penalty for what the Romanian claimed was a foul on his star striker Lacina Traore, in the last game of the season.
“For a deliberate shove on the referee, FC Kuban coach Dan Petrescu is fined 50,000 rubles and banned for six games of the Russian championship,” the Football Union’s disciplinary committee said in a website statement.
Petrescu joined Kuban at the start of 2010, leading the team to promotion in his first season and then a surprise eighth-place finish in the Russian Premier League in 2011-12.
His success at Kuban has seen him linked with some high-profile coaching jobs, including at CSKA and Dynamo Moscow, but he said earlier this month that he has no plans to move.