Former Manchester City player denies he and his friends started fight in Slovak fast food restaurant that left a man in hospital
- Witnesses said they saw trio acting aggressively in late-night restaurant
- At some point a chair was thrown that hit another diner in the head
- No witness has positively identified who threw the chair
Three Slovak footballers, including one who played for Manchester City, have denied starting a fight that left a man needing hospital treatment after he was hit in the head by a chair.
Witnesses said they saw the trio together with other footballers in a fast food restaurant in Bratislava, the Slovak capital, where they were acting in a noisy and aggressive way.
A fight allegedly started when they were asked to calm down.
Three wise monkeys: Vladimir Weiss, left, Filip Sebo, centre, and Filip Orsula, right, in a picture shared by Sebo on Instagram after an incident in which left a man was hit with a chair and needed hospital treatment
It ended when police were called after a chair was thrown. It hit Pavol Remias, 35, who had been sitting at a nearby table with his wife and friends, leaving him needing hospital treatment.
Former Manchester City player Vladimir Weiss denied that he or his friends, former Rangers FC player Filip Sebo and former Wigan Athletic player Filip Orsula, had been involved.
The day after the incident posted on his Twitter account: 'Some junkie needs to sell his CDs so he used the fact that me and Filip Sebo were at the wrong place in the wrond time. Good luck, singer!'
The footballer later deleted the tweet.
An eyewitness told local media that the group of footballers including Sebo, 30, Weiss, 25, and Orsula, 21 had gone into the restaurant where they were being vulgar, noisy and aggressive.
They reacted furiously when they were asked to calm down, the witness claimed. One of the group then grabbed a chair and hurled it into the area where Mr Remias was sitting, it is claimed.
Mr Remias said he was unable to identify who threw the chair. He told local media: 'It was a deep cut and was instantly a lot of blood in my eyes, so I couldn't see through it.
'But I'm pretty sure that the person that threw the chair wasn’t Slovak national team player Vladimir Weiss.'
'It was a deep cut': Pavol Remias was hurt when a chair was hurled into an area where he was sat with his wife and some friends. But he says he didn't see who threw the chair
Several witnesses said they couldn't identify the the person who threw the chair because he left immediately, although they said he was one of the group that included Mr Weiss and was earlier sitting at the same table.
A spokesman for the bar said that although CCTV cameras were installed, they had been switched off at the time.
Several other people were also hurt in the violent altercation including Mr Remias's friend Dusan Marunak. He said: 'When the police arrived they made a wall between us and the troublemakers.
'I think it would have been a lot worse if the police hadn't been there.
'The person that threw the chair had been sitting at the table with the footballers before the incident happened.'
Police spokesman Michal Szeiff confirmed a fight happened in Kuskus restaurant and bar at 4.45am and police were called.
They said that officers on the scene had then called an ambulance and the injured man was transported and treated in University Hospital in Bratislava’s Old town.
After deleting the tweet Weiss made an official statement to the Slovak football Association saying: 'I am very sorry that I or any of my friends have been connected with a violent incident in which none of us took part and where we simply had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
'We answered all the questions of the policemen. I believe personal hostility against me and other footballers shouldn’t be used as the basis for creating a scandal which has nothing to do with football.'
Team mates: Weiss, left, and Sebo played together at Glasgow Rangers.
Buddies: Orsula, left, and Weiss. Both Slovak players were previously on the books at Manchester City
Filip Sebo meanwhile also said that they had been innocent victims of troublemakers who had spotted them. 'Everything that happened went on without any involvement of either me or Mr Weiss,' he said.
However he refused to say if the person that had thrown the chair had indeed been sitting at the table with them before the incident.
And when pressed he replied: 'We didn’t know what happened. So don't ask stupid questions, I have told you what went on and that's all.'
Slovak daily newspaper Plus Jeden Den revealed that Slovak national team under 21 and former Manchester City youth team player Filip Orsula, 21, was one of the group.
Orsula told the paper: 'We were not involved in the incident so I do not think it is necessary to comment on it.'
Jan Kozak, the manager of Slovakia’s national team, also declined to comment on the case, saying he had been informed about it and therefore was not prepared to say anything.
Weiss, who currently plays for Qatar’s Lekhwiya SC, played in 2009-2012 for Manchester City, then for spells at Bolton Wanderers and Glasgow Rangers. His father is a former manager of Slovakia’s national football team.
He has had several problems in the past, including using insulting language on social media and verbally offending rival clubs. He was also fined when he and his national teammates went clubbing on a night before a game.
In October 2011, when Weiss was a Manchester City player, he invited two girls Rebecca Grove and Raegan Daniels to his home who stole his Hublot and Breitling watches worth £20.