Mousinho Questions Referee Account After Bielik-Fan Incident

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho has challenged the account he says he was initially given of an altercation involving Cardiff City defender Krystian Bielik and a supporter. BBC Sport reported that Mousinho reconsidered his post-match response after viewing footage of the incident, which occurred during Portsmouth's victory over Cardiff on Saturday.

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Bielik became involved in a physical confrontation with a fan while trying to retrieve a ball from the crowd late in the second half. Hampshire Police subsequently said it had opened an investigation into a reported incident in which a teenage boy was said to have been the victim of a common assault. The investigation remains ongoing, and police have not announced a conclusion.

Immediately after the match, Mousinho apologised to Cardiff's players and condemned the conduct of the supporters involved. He said on Wednesday, during media duties before Portsmouth's game against Charlton, that those remarks had been based entirely on information supplied to him because his position at the time prevented him from seeing the confrontation clearly.

According to Mousinho's account to BBC Radio Solent, the referee told Portsmouth staff that he had seen the full incident. Mousinho said the referee described one supporter as having slapped Bielik and another as having thrown a ball at Cardiff player Perry Ng. Supporters who witnessed the episode made gestures indicating that they believed a fan had been grabbed by the throat, the BBC reported.

Mousinho said watching the footage left him angry about the position in which he had been placed. He added that he intended to address the discrepancy with the referees' association. However, he declined to offer his own judgment on the alleged assault because it is the subject of the police investigation.

Pro Ref, the organisation responsible for overseeing officials across Premier League, English Football League and Football Association competitions, was contacted by the BBC for comment. No response from the body was included in the report. The central facts of the encounter are therefore still being examined, while Mousinho's latest comments concern the accuracy of the information he says shaped his initial public reaction.