Referee Georgi Kabakov also provided plenty of talking points surrounding Bayern’s 3–3 draw in Stavanger. Vincent Kompany had a bad feeling right from the start.
Bayern manager Vincent Kompany admitted that Michael Olise’s gross unsporting behaviour was simply “utterly stupid”. At the same time, however, the Belgian made no secret of the fact that he was generally dissatisfied with the referee following the frenzied 3–3 draw in Stavanger.
The Bulgarian Georgi Kabakov took charge of a Bayern Munich match for the first time on Tuesday evening and apparently gave the Bavarian coach a bad feeling even before kick-off: “I had the immediate feeling before the match that the referee wanted to do something special today,” Kompany said, criticising the official’s demeanour on Prime Video. “It was incredibly obvious that he was going to play a bigger role at some point.”
Laimer: “The ref wanted to blow the whistle however he pleased anyway”
Whilst the referee was correct regarding Olise’s foul on Zlatko Tripic, he caused some head-shaking among the Munich side in one or two situations during the match. For instance, in the 81st minute, when Konrad Laimer had been involved in a fierce challenge with Tripic: “The referee just wanted to blow his whistle however he pleased anyway, but that’s another story,” said Laimer. “Then I was lying on the ground with a head injury; I’d always thought the referee had to stop play for a head injury. It didn’t matter at that moment, though.” Instead, Kabakov sent the Austrian off for lying on the ground for too long. According to the new rules, he has to do that, but Laimer didn’t dispute it either.
However, it wasn’t just on Tuesday that Kabakov caused a stir; the referee had already attracted negative attention in the past. In October 2025, the 40-year-old was suspended “indefinitely” by the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU). The reason given at the time was “inadequate performance as a VAR referee”, i.e. video assistant referee. However, the suspension was limited in several respects. On the one hand, it applied only at national level, so UEFA still deployed him at the end of October. On the other hand, the Bulgarian reappeared in the association’s official fixtures on 4 November 2025 and was officiating a league match again just three days later.
Despite all the criticism of the referee, Kompany did not wish to shirk his own responsibility: “That’s always going to be the case; it’s part of the game. And no matter what the referee does now, we have to play a competitive, clever game. And we didn’t do that.”
