Football Commentator Sacked: Fell Asleep During Barcelona Match

Russian commentator Vasily Utkin sacked for sleeping on the job. Credit: Reuters

Some have described the current Barcelona teams as the best of all time but even watching the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar was not enough to keep one Russian TV commentator awake.

Vasily Utkin –  a lead commentator for the new Russian state sports broadcaster Match TV – was watching Luis Enrique’s side face Bayer Leverkusen in a Champions League tie in December when he accidentally dozed off at the end of the first half of the 1-1 draw. Utkin has now been suspended despite the fact that he claims to suffer from a chronic sleep disorder.

“I am convinced that [the suspension] is due to this commentary in the game between Bayer and Barça. But I wasn’t spoken to just about this game,” he told the TASS agency.

“I can explain what happened in the match. For a few years, I’ve been suffering from chronic sleep disorder. It just so happened that at the end of the first half, I fell asleep and I was talking in my sleep.

“Naturally, it is very easy to understand that this is the case, because in the second half there were no problems at all.” [Source]