If it had been Adrian Porumboiu, fourth man in the Champions League final in 1995, Louis van Gaal would have been sent to the stands. The coach of Ajax imitated a karate kick to illustrate how Jari Litmanen had escaped a death from AC Milan’s Marcel Desailly.
It has been almost 25 years since Ajax won the Cup with the Big Ears by beating Milan 1-0 in Vienna. Patrick Kluivert punted the winning goal against the ropes in the final phase. Porumboiu, fourth official during that game, mainly remembers Van Gaal’s karate kick.
The Ajax coach tried to make it clear that he had seen a foul on Jari Litmanen. “I motioned to Ion (Craciunescu, the referee, ed.) To come over and explain what had happened,” said fourth official Porumboiu in a Ajax Lifespecial about the final in question. “I don’t look at it differently than 25 years ago. Van Gaal should have been sent to the stands.”
The person concerned, arbitrator Craciunescu, did not take the advice of his assistant. “I found his action extremely inappropriate,” the fourth official tries to explain. “I understood Van Gaal himself afterwards, too. That Ion urged him to rest and let it go, was his decision.”
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