Translated material
Thirty-third team
However, it cannot be done without mistakes. They are generally part of football. But any player perceives them painfully. If the referee unfairly punishes you in any episode, you immediately feel the negativity directed in your direction. It always seems that the referee is wrong, but when emotions cool down, you begin to analyze the past match, admitting that certain decisions were correct. Often I realized that the referee made an unintentional mistake. But in a game, seventy percent of the blame is usually placed on the referee’s side, unless, of course, you come across egregious cases. I think the referees made mistakes and will continue to do so, because they, like football players, are also people.
I often had to deal with miscalculations by referees against my team. I remember an episode when I was very young, performing at Krasnaya Presnya. At sixteen and a half years old, I went with her to Karabakh. Our club fought for promotion to the first league, and I remember that match very well. It was officiated by the well-known referee from Belarus, Vadim Zhuk. Everyone knows how football was judged in the southern regions of our country. For the first time I encountered complete chaos, which became a revelation for me. How serious everything was, I must say, is the fact that even to this day I cannot forget those events. The referee then did not count two of our goals, sending me off the field. In addition, we were awarded a penalty in a funny situation. An opposing player jumped into the penalty area ten meters before the penalty area and fell, and the referee put the ball on the spot. It’s funny to me now, but it wasn’t funny then.
There are many such controversial issues, but you always ask yourself: “Is the judge making a mistake on purpose?” And you don't believe it. But when this happens once, twice, three times, you involuntarily begin to think: maybe the referee is biased. I remember the World Cup qualifying match against Slovenia, when Graham Poll came up with a penalty against us. There is something else that upsets me about all this. Imagine, because of one refereeing error, the team suffers, and with it the fans and the whole country, deprived of a trip to a major tournament. And the referee will do his job and go home calmly.
Yes, I reacted violently to refereeing mistakes, but only on the football field. People close to me know that in ordinary life I am a calm person. But I always believed that in the game you have to live football, and not behave phlegmatically. If I am destined to become a coach, I will never scold a football player if he becomes indignant at refereeing errors, without crossing the line of reason.
If we evaluate the refereeing at the current World Championship using a five-point system, then I would give it a “C plus”. After the opening games there were no scandals at all, but there was no life-or-death struggle yet. So we don’t know the true level of judging yet. I said that we need to wait for the decisive meetings, then we will see everything. Although there were some rough spots. For example, in the game between the French and Koreans, when a clean goal by Raymond Domenech’s team was not counted. Or an unassigned penalty against the Swiss in a match with the same French for handball, which should have been determined by Valentin Ivanov.
The reason for the referee's mistakes is the insane tension that reigns around the matches. Just imagine, the ball is rushing around the penalty area, there are ten players on one side and the other, the referee cannot always keep track of everything. In this regard, I want to understand why they have not yet installed a referee on the podium who, like in hockey, could monitor controversial moments using video replay. The referees were equipped with equipment, which means the linesmen are able to convey the verdict to the chief referee via radio. And the dynamics of the game do not suffer. It happens that a football player gets injured and gets help for two minutes. During this time, you can easily determine whether the ball has crossed the goal line or not. Moreover, there are plenty of similar situations.
So technical progress in refereeing is the progress of football. But let's still wait for the playoffs. It is on them that the work of the judges will be discussed after the end of the tournament. But it’s no secret that a referee’s mistake when the score is tied always has a negative impact on the players’ mood. There is no escape from this. Especially if it contributes to your team’s elimination from the competition. But let’s remember: there is no football without refereeing mistakes.