Of course, certain groups of people will disregard that part (you know, the TRUE part of the story) and instead claim that this is an example of modern day persecution...
Unfortunately his version of events are NOT true either. It wasn't about a refusal to give the ref the ball (or at least it wasn't when the coach asked for a clarification).
The part about it being a persecution is speculation, just like your saying it ISN'T about persecution is speculation. We don't know. We do know that there is pretty widespread agreement that it was a dumb flag that shouldn't have been thrown for the reason that it has been asserted that it was thrown.
So asserting that your side is "TRUE" is the same as those asserting some part about persecution. You don't actually know and defending the ref is pretty pointless.