Coaches Valery Karpin and Guillermo Abascal were disqualified

The Control and Disciplinary Committee (CDC) of the Russian Football Union (RFU) on Thursday imposed disqualifications on two coaches of Russian Premier League (RPL) teams. Rostov coach Valery Karpin was suspended for two matches for insulting a referee, Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal was suspended for three matches for pushing an opposing player. In both cases, the coaches will serve a suspended sentence for one match. That is, Karpin will be able to lead the team in the first game after the winter break, and Abascal will miss both the last round of the championship this year at the end of this week, and the first after its resumption. In it, the red and white will face Zenit.

On Thursday, the Control and Disciplinary Committee of the RFU assessed the high-profile incidents that took place in the 17th round of the Russian Championship. It featured the head coaches of two RPL teams. Rostov coach Valery Karpin (the Rostov team’s match against CSKA took place on December 3 in Moscow, when the capital was covered with snow; the guests lost with a score of 0:2) on Match TV expressed dissatisfaction conditions of the game, saying: “What kind of moron, idiot made this decision in order to see this action?” Mr. Karpin emphasized that he considers holding a match in such conditions “the murder of football.”

Later Valery Karpin told the publication Sport24that he does not believe that his words insulted anyone personally (the Rostov coach did not really name any names), which means there are no grounds for his disqualification.

The CDC, however, thought differently. As the head of the CDC, Artur Grigoryants, explained to reporters, “in a report additionally requested by the CDC, the chief referee of the match, Rafael Shafeev, indicated that Karpin, immediately after the final whistle, calmly asked the question who made the decision to hold the match, and he replied that the decision was made by the chief match referee.” “That is, before the interview, Karpin heard from the chief referee that it was the chief referee who made the decision on the match,” said Mr. Grigoryants. “Valery Georgievich is an official of the club, the head coach, he should have known that the decision was made by the referee. Karpin explained why he spoke in such a manner; he did not fully believe that Shafeev had made a decision.” As a result, Valery Karpin was disqualified for two matches (one suspended) for insulting a match official. That is, he will miss the last championship match in 2023 (Rostov will meet Akhmat away on December 9), but in early March, when the championship resumes, he will be able to be on the bench again.

If in the case of Karpin it was a purely verbal insult, and not entirely personalized, then in the story in which Spartak head coach Guillermo Abascal became a participant, it came to insult by action.

The red-whites met with Akhmat in the 17th round, and the Grozny team won at home with a score of 2:1. Abascal received a red card in the first half, being involved in a rare incident for a coach. In the 35th minute, Akhmat forward Gamid Agalarov opened the scoring, scoring after a pass from Bernard Berisha. The latter was so happy to be involved in the scoring attack that he ran to celebrate, but for some reason into the Spartak technical zone (by the way, the referee considered this behavior provocative, for which the Kosovo midfielder received a yellow card). But Abaskal was not happy about the appearance of the galloping Kosovar and pushed him. Completely in vain. Not only did he receive a straight red card, but, according to the decision of the CDC, he was suspended for three games (one suspended). That is, Abascal will appear on the red-white bench no earlier than March 9, 2024, in the match against Fakel. But he will miss the most important game against Zenit (March 2).

Note that Abascal later made a public apology for his behavior. According to Mr. Grigoryants, he repeated them in front of members of the CDC. “He took part in the meeting and admitted his behavior was wrong. He apologized again. He said he would accept any punishment. We reviewed all materials, including videos. Taking into account all the circumstances, we came to the following: a disqualification for three RPL matches, one of them suspended. The probationary period is one year,” Arthur Grigoryants told reporters. “They said, first of all, that Abaskal’s actions could be perceived by the audience as provocative. You saw that then the bottles flew. Abascal’s apology had an impact. If it weren’t for them, there could have been three matches of disqualification.”

Alexander Petrov