Ten minutes before the scheduled kickoff between FK Riteriai and FK Panevėžys, highly unexpected news emerged from the media outlet Futbolas.lt.
Aurimas Budraitis, a member of the media and also affiliated with the Riteriai club, announced that the match could not begin due to a rather unusual reason.
“Personally, I’ve always found the difficult questions surrounding Riteriai painful. But what’s happening now is no longer funny. The match between Riteriai and Panevėžys is scheduled to begin in 10 minutes, yet it likely won’t. There’s no ambulance at the stadium, and it doesn’t seem like one is coming. We’re already in debt, and no one is willing to take on any more. It’s especially sad to see things end this way,” A. Budraitis said.
Meanwhile, the match commentator also expressed serious doubts over whether the game would go ahead.
“We still don’t know if the ambulance will arrive. If it does not show up within 45 minutes, the match will not take place. The league committee would then deliberate on the situation, and FK Riteriai would likely be handed a forfeit defeat,” the commentator stated.
Earlier today, Lithuania’s Professional Footballers’ Association announced that FK Riteriai head coach Gintautas Vaičiūnas, along with players Egidijus Vaitkūnas and Artem Baftalovskyi, had officially terminated their contracts and are no longer part of the club.
The departures come amid an ongoing financial crisis at the Vilnius-based club. With players reportedly unpaid for more than two months, they are legally entitled to terminate their agreements with FK Riteriai. According to Lithuania’s Professional Footballers’ Association president Arūnas Klimavičius, more players are expected to leave the club before the end of the week, as the situation continues to deteriorate and the club edges closer to collapse.
Meanwhile, although FK Panevėžys appear far more stable off the pitch, they have faced their own struggles on it. Sitting seventh in the TOPLYGA standings ahead of kickoff, the club finds itself well below the expectations set at the start of the season.
