We’ve all been guilty of dozing off during a dull game game, but it is unlikely to have cost you your job as it has in the unfortunate case of Russian commentator Vasily Utkin.
The 43-year-old, one of the lead commentators for the new Russian state sports broadcaster Match TV, has been suspended after he fell asleep during last month’s Champions League stalemate between Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen.
At first glance it may seem a suitable punishment but Utkin may have been harshly treated on account of suffering from chronic sleep disorder
“I am convinced [the suspension] is due to this commentary in the game between Bayer and Barca. But I wasn’t spoken to just about this game,” he told the TASS agency.
“I can explain what happened in the match. For a few years, I’ve been suffering from chronic sleep disorder. It just so happened that at the end of the first half, I fell asleep and I was talking in my sleep.
“Naturally, it is very easy to understand that this is the case, because in the second half there were no problems at all.”