For many years, Nejc Kajtazović was considered one of the best Slovenian referees. He was also VAR in the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, which was refereed by Slavko Vinčić. However, although he is at the top of Slovenian referees, scandals are quite glued to him. Years ago, for example, following some controversial decisions, he was called a great fan of Olimpija, which he denied in an interview with Ekipa eight years ago, but the Maribor accusations were even greater when his brother was hired to coach the youth team of Olimpija. However, Kajtazović is also considered a fan of Olimpija because of some controversial penalty kicks he awarded in their favour. Let's remember the match with Radomlje in the 11th round of season 2021/22, when Mustafa Nukić suddenly fell to the ground, although the slow motion revealed that the Ljubljana player was essentially stepping on the defender. Or due to errors against Maribor, such as when, as a VAR referee, did not report to Martin Matoša that Daniel Offenbacher should be sent off in the match between Maribor and Domžale. "In this case, we have to keep in mind that it was in the 50th second of the game, the referee may have been a little unprepared, but you always have to go to the game with the thought of expect the unexpected. The foul of the Domžale player does not seem as bad as in the video, so I can understand why the referee missed it. But I don’t understand why the VAR didn’t intervene? I believe that in this case, he should have given the referee the opportunity to look again and decide for himself. If the VAR considers this to be a more severe foul, he should show the referee the footage and not give him any hints. The referee is the one who decides. For me, it's a red card, even if it happened in the first minute. We are talking about safety; we need to protect the players. There is no such thing here", said former top referee Damir Skomina in the show Pod Čekazazović.
Last October, Nejc Kajtazović got into a real scandal when he worked as a physical education teacher at the elementary school of Jakob Aljaž in Kranj, where he was fired because he claimed false travel expenses and thus cheated on his employer. At the same time, Kajtazović also took on the ugly reputation of the referee 'for special assignments' in friendly matches who are not very "visible" and can be bet on. The accusations were made, for example, by the players of Koper, who competed in Kranj with Dinamo and who were extremely dissatisfied with the Kajtazović's refereeing. "This referee is betting!" was ragged at that time by the players of Koper, when Kajazović first awarded a penalty kick in favour of Dinamo for a foul that occurred probably outside the penalty area, and then, after Josip Mišić missed it, he decided to repeat the penalty kick, although there was no logical reason for this.
In recent days, Kajtazović has made a new absurd mistake when the youth team of Slovenia and Austria competed in a friendly match in Kranj. To make it even more strange, he hurt the Slovenian team! In the 36th minute, he an extremely controversial – not to use a heavier expression – penalty kick to the Austrians. An Austrian player shot strong and high, but the ball hit the crossbar and bounced about half a meter back into the field. In short, it wasn't even close to the goal line, let alone over it. To the surprise of all players, Kajtazović awarded a goal for Austria and the Austrians took a 2-0 lead with a phantom goal. During the same match, Kajtazović also awarded very controversial – not to use another term again – penalty kick to Slovenia, which was scored by Luka Topalović and set the result Slovenia – Austria 1-2. This summer, Kajtazović also refereed a friendly match between Istria and Göztepe, which also had a lot of controversy. He awarded three penalty kicks, each of them more ridiculous than the other. Even then, there were comments about the referee betting on the game.
You can see all the controversial situations in these videos:
Slovenia U19 – Austria U-19 (min. 45:20 penalty kick and non-existent goal of Austrians, min. 55:33 penalty kick for Slovenia)
Koper – Dinamo (min. 1:55 penalty kick and the retake comedy)
Istria – Göztepe (min. 1:50 first penalty kick, min. 2:47 second penalty kick, min. 3:35 third penalty kick)
Olimpija – Radomlje (min. 0:52 penalty kick for Olimpia)
Source: Ekipa
