“The worst refereeing in Europe”: Russian football has been shaken by a new scandal

Last straw

Late in the evening on March 15, the match of the 1/4 finals of the Way of the Regions of the Cup of Russia between Zenit and Dynamo, one of the most principled rivals in our football, ended in St. Petersburg. The main and extra time ended in a draw, Muscovites won on penalties. At first, Zenit goalkeeper Alexander Vasyutin parried Vyacheslav Grulev’s shot, and then Dynamo goalkeeper Igor Leshchuk coped with the blows of Daler Kuzyaev and Douglas dos Santos.

However, the main hero of this match was not the goalkeepers of both teams and field players. Although the episode with Vasyutin’s ball bouncing into his own goal in the first minute, after which the Dynamo team took the lead, could well have been decisive. The main star of the meeting was a 36-year-old FIFA referee from Kaluga Evgeny Lazarevich Kukulyak.

In the 62nd minute of the match, with the score 1:1, Dynamo’s Konstantin Tyukavin received a pass from the flank in the penalty area of ​​Zenit, and the midfielder of the hosts Claudinho hit him in the leg from behind. Tukavin fell, Claudinho too. Kukulyak showed – we play further. The VAR brigade, headed by Pavel Kukuyan, intervened in the matter, offering Yevgeny Lazarevich, together with them, to carefully watch the game episode on the screen again. Kukulyak stared at the monitor for five minutes, after which he did not change his decision, showing that there was no penalty.

The controversial opinion of the referee, to which he certainly had the right, struck everyone, from the fans and commentators of the match to the main newsmakers of our football. The Internet exploded.

“Stop being patient”

The sharpest statement, according to the already established good tradition, came from the lips of the wife of the former owner of Spartak, Zarema Salikhova.

“If the refereeing lawlessness on the field continues, then I think that Spartak and Dynamo need to unite against this. Historical sworn rivals since the founding of the clubs can come together against all this disgrace. There is simply no other way. Stop being patient. It is necessary to ask not football referees, but their leadership, who created such a system in our football. Stop chewing snot, because there is an addressee for all this. RFU or RPL, it doesn’t matter (there are employees from the same structures and region), maybe it’s time to admit that you can’t cope with your work?

I think that if the referees continue to do what happened with Martins and Tyukavin, then they should take the players off the field, refuse to continue the game, and spend the rest of the time with the fans and signing autographs,” Salikhova told Metaratings.ru.

“My God, how many mistakes referees make. I don’t know what’s going on and how to deal with it. I’m not talking about their professional incompetence. Arbitrators make mistakes deliberately, mow over and over again. We urgently need to do something about this, the RFU needs to think hard. In Russia, of course, the worst refereeing in Europe, ”the ex-president of Lokomotiv Olga Smorodskaya did not stand aside.

“This is a hundred percent penalty, this is a negligent foul. Kukulyak was in an ideal position, he should have awarded a penalty. Kukulyak swam, got scared, you saw his face. It’s just chaos… I just don’t understand how they will justify this decision. It’s terrible,” former RPL referee Igor Fedotov expressed his professional opinion.

“You can see the shaking of the judges when deciding moments in the Zenit match and not in favor of Zenit. I’m not saying that Zenit is pulled by the ears, but every time there is a change in such moments. 95 percent of judges, when they go to watch the moment at VAR, understand that they are calling for a reason – people at VAR looked at the moment and saw a violation. And then he looks, looks, and does not give, ”a well-known expert and television commentator, a former player of Spartak and the USSR national team, Yevgeny Lovchev, agrees with him.

And the general director of Dynamo Pavel Pivovarov, who by the way worked for many years in senior positions at Zenit, demanded to return the practice of using a lie detector when checking the work of referees at matches.

The reaction of the football authorities.

She didn’t keep waiting. After all, the situation is indeed critical. Because in the two spring rounds of the RPL and two rounds of the RPL Cup there are so many refereeing mistakes that doubts begin to creep in – maybe there is some subjective reason for what is happening?

The head of the Russian judiciary, Pavel Kamantsev, following the results of the expert-judicial commission (ESC), on March 16, spoke in detail what will happen now with Kukulyak. And some other referees.

“Experts assessed two controversial episodes in the Russian Cup matches Spartak-Ural and Zenit-Dynamo. All decisions were unanimous. In the near future, an explanation with a video will be published on the resources of the RFU.

In the episode with a fall in Martins’ penalty area, the experts unanimously considered that the VAR should have called the referee to the monitor, since in this episode a 11-meter free kick should have been awarded.

In the episode with the fall of Tyukavin, a penalty should also have been awarded without issuing a yellow card. The VAR correctly called Evgeny Kukulyak to the monitor, but he mistakenly did not change his original decision.

We were not satisfied with the quality of Zhabchenko’s work, so he will not be VAR in the Nizhny Novgorod – Torpedo match (the game of the 20th round of the RPL, scheduled for March 19 – ed.) and will remain without appointments in the RPL for some time .

As for Yevgeny Kukulyak, he has a very low final score, so he falls down the rankings and will not be able to qualify for appointment for some time. After a pause (associated with friendly matches of the national team – ed.), he will be able to resume work, but first in the First League, ”Kamantsev said.

Zhabchenko has already been replaced by Vasily Kazartsev at VAR in the upcoming game.

Fair? The ESC employs the most authoritative Russian judges, which means yes. Has it become easier? No. And that’s why.

Who will judge?

According to the results of the match of the 19th round of Rostov – Nizhny Novgorod, referee Anton Frolov, due to a gross error, will not receive appointments to the RPL until the end of the season, Pavel Kamantsev told Match TV. Adding that most likely the referee will work in the First League.

Earlier, he also said that Vitaly Meshkov was not assigned to the matches of the 19th round due to two key mistakes and a low score in the 18th round match between Spartak and Ural.

Moreover, as authoritative journalist Alexander Bobrov wrote in Sport-Express, before the 19th round, the leadership of the RFU generally had difficulties in appointing judges. Due to health problems associated with injuries, injuries and illnesses, Yan Bobrovsky, Kirill Levnikov and Vasily Kazartsev could not work. Due to mistakes in the cup games and matches of the 18th round, in addition to Meshkov, Sergei Ivanov, Artem Lyubimov and Alexei Sukhoi were on the bench. Vladimir Moskalev sits on the “bench”, Ivan Sidenkov, Artem Chistyakov, Anton Frolov and Evgeny Turbin have a chance of being suspended.

All this even forced the always very calm and polite president of the RPL, Alexander Alaev, to speak rather sharply in an interview with Match TV on a sore subject: “It seems to me that it’s time for the judges to join the championship. I am not an ESC, but there are enough mistakes. It’s clear that there is excitement and the resumption of the championship, but I want there to be fewer mistakes.”

The wish is justified, especially since the judges’ fees have almost doubled since the 19th round of the current season. And now the referee for the RPL match receives not 115, but 200 thousand rubles. Not counting the monthly remuneration of 50 thousand rubles.

There is something to strive for. If you want to eat.