Judges on call

Obedient referees are often made by football officials and high-ranking fans.

After last year's scandalous season, the first round of the current football championship was relatively quiet and smooth. But as soon as the decisive second round began, it began: the scandalous refereeing of Akhmadullin in the match "Torpedo" - "Terek"; ...

After last year's scandalous season, the first round of the current football championship was relatively quiet and smooth. But as soon as the decisive second round began, it began: the scandalous refereeing of Akhmadullin in the Torpedo-Terek match; Yuri Baskakov's statement about a possible strike by Russian arbitrators who do not want to put up with the dominance of foreigners; a letter from Saturn near Moscow, dissatisfied with the refereeing of Zakharov in the game with Luch-Energy; “strange matches”, which even the journalists of the sports TV channel, who are always cautious in their assessments, commented in a mocking way ... You could already read about all this on the pages of Novaya Gazeta. To be honest, we got tired of writing about different events, united by the same reasons, and we decided to look at the problems of refereeing in general. After talking with a lot of football and "near-football" experts, we have identified several main reasons for today's scandals in our football arbitration corps. Reason 1. Personal Last season, inconvenient for many, the head of the College of Football Referees (CFA), Nikolai Levnikov, was replaced by a protege of the president of the Russian Football Union, Vitaly Mutko, Sergey Zuev. It might seem that the reason for Levnikov's resignation was his unsatisfactory work. But experts knew: a series of scandals with the removal of a number of judges was just an excuse. (By the way, almost all suspended judges this year were quietly forgiven.) This decision had two motives. First, to convince the public that something is being done to “cleanse” football. Secondly, the leadership of the RFU and many clubs simply did not like the personality of Levnikov, for whom there were no untouchables among the judges. The current head of the CFA, on the contrary, is very convenient. Few people know him, he has no European judicial education, experience and connections behind him, he is not very much considered, and the defining word always remains with his “patron” - Mutko. The weak will of the President of the CFA is, as the arbitrators themselves note, one of the main causes of tension within the judiciary. The system of training arbitrators is falling apart, and most importantly, the system of their selection. In the referee lists appear unknown to anyone and it is not clear where the people came from. For example, at the beginning of this year, Georgy Maramygin and Sergey Karasev, who had only one and a half seasons of the first league, were among the referees of the Premier League. The list can be continued: Andreev, and Kabakov, and Akhmadullin ... The absence of a selection mechanism just allows you to bring to the field either those judges who are beneficial to someone, or those who are looking for profit themselves, simply "buying a position." By the way, Akhmadullin was recently temporarily deprived of his job due to monstrous mistakes in the match of the first division "Torpedo" - "Terek". This happened, however, only after another cry from the soul of Vadim Evseev. Prior to this, the same Akhmadullin, recommended by the head of the CFA Zuev to the top division, at the initiative of the president of the Russian Football Premier League Mikhail Vorontsov, had already been excluded from the list of top division referees. And the question arises: who leads the judiciary - players, presidents or someone else? But certainly not the one to whom it is due by status. Reason 2. Inspection The fate of the referee largely depends on the assessment of the inspector: for an unsatisfactory score, the judge is suspended from work for a month. Today there is a rating system introduced by Alexei Spirin, Chairman of the Inspection Committee. Its main disadvantage is that it involves an arithmetic approach to the analysis of the quality of refereeing. For example, the same Akhmadullin in the match "Lokomotiv" - "Rostov" does not appoint three hundred percent penalties against "Rostov", but still receives a "satisfactory" rating from the inspector and continues to referee. Why? Because the railway workers still win, and, therefore, the referee's mistakes did not affect the outcome of the match. A similar situation with Alexander Gonchar in the game "Lokomotiv" - "Wings of the Soviets": the referee gives an absolutely "left" penalty to the goal of the Samara team, mistakenly removes a player from them, but still receives a satisfactory score, because Lokomotiv wins 5 in the end: 2. And some inspectors, not daring to independently evaluate the work of the arbitrator, call Spirin after the matches in order, after consulting, to put the “correct” score. Thus, the arbitrators who have been fined, but pleasing to someone, are forgiven, and those who are inconvenient can be severely punished. Igor Zakharov, who allegedly badly judged the Luch-Energia-Saturn match, is suspended from work for a month. Although all experts admit that if Zakharov was wrong, then he was unbiased. The same fate awaited Igor Yegorov, who, according to some, whistled an incorrect penalty in the Dynamo-Khimki game. As a result, one of the best arbitrators in Russia is suspended from work for a single mistake, and Akhmadullin, who has come from nowhere, continues to judge, despite a whole series of “misses”. The arbitrators themselves in this situation have to either put up with the current state of affairs, or leave, Valentin Ivanov. It is pointless to resist, because refereeing issues are often not resolved in the sports community, they are the prerogative of near-football lobbyists, including both regional and federal officials. Last year's scandal with Pettai happened at the suggestion of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, and "thanks" to the intervention of the governor of Primorye, Tyumin was removed from work. This season, the punishment of Zakharov, it seems, has contributed a lot to the opinion of the governor of the Moscow region, who takes care of Saturn. Football leaders don't really want to resist the calls of such "fans". And the inspectors themselves are by no means "forced". In the first league, for example, there was a practice when teams did not write complaints about refereeing at all. The scheme is simple: today we forgive you, but next time you will return the “debt”. A whole cohort of arbitrators and inspectors appeared with full "backpacks" of debt obligations. It is difficult to say whether this practice has survived, but the current toothlessness of the football leadership does not allow us to be convinced of the opposite. Reason 3. Appointments Arbitrators for specific games are approved by a special appointment committee, which includes representatives from RFPL, RFU and CFA. In general, it is difficult to understand the procedure for making decisions by this commission. Well, imagine: a person from the Premier League (RFPL) votes for Ivanov, a representative of the RFU shouts: come on Petrov, and the CFA - for Sidorov, it is not clear who will judge in the end. For this, by the way, the head of the CFA was given the right to a decisive vote. But what guides the president of the CFA? One example: Oleksandr Honchar was appointed to the match between Spartak and Zenit, who had officiated the preliminary round of the Champions League three days before. That is, the almost forty-year-old referee did not have time to recover. This is acknowledged by Gonchar himself, who stated that it takes a week to prepare for the games of teams like Spartak or Zenit. And experts admit that mistakes were made by the referee in this meeting simply because he did not keep up with the course of events. As for the appointments of “strange” referees for the match, the motives for such decisions are known only to Mr. Zuev. Reason 4. Selection Since we are talking about obscure judicial nominations, it would be nice to know where these nominations come from. For a young referee who wants to get into the big leagues, there are two ways. The first one is simple. A novice referee, who is already ready to join professional football, is approached by people on the ground and asked to pay them money in order to speed up the process of professional development. These people, as a rule, occupy high positions in regional refereeing boards, are members of the executive committee of the RFU and local football federations. They “protect” such an arbitrator almost throughout his entire career and, of course, make money on him, “customizing” with his help the necessary results of the necessary matches and receiving “black bonuses” for this from near-football businessmen and lobbyists. In a year and a half or two years, the referee who made the "entry fee" may be in the Premier League. The second way is more difficult. The young judge refuses to pay and bangs his head against the wall year after year. As a result, he can get on the list. Of course, the percentage ratio of these two groups in the top division cannot be estimated by counting the last names of the candidates who have come from nowhere. So far, no one wants to change this selection system. It is beneficial to everyone: both clubs, and heads of regional federations, and owners of clubs - official and shadow: there is an arbitrator with whom you can negotiate, there are intermediaries. Oddly enough, only one side is not interested in this system - the judges themselves. Yes, one "black" bonus is the referee's salary for several years, but do not forget that corruption in football is always associated with a great risk, including for life and health. The arbitrator, if something somewhere “didn’t grow together”, is always extreme. No matter what specialist in the field of refereeing you have to communicate with, everyone agrees on one thing: with the current methods of leadership, we are in for even more scandals, and Russian football even more upheavals. And the politician Vitaly Mutko, who constantly declares his desire to fight corruption, cannot correct the situation. Building fields for children with Abramovich's money is not difficult, and politically correct. To invite Hiddink to the national team for the same money is also not a problem. But when responsible actions are required in relation to both their own environment and the management of the clubs, and especially their patrons, it is obvious: the same “political correctness” interferes. In this situation, football problems are solved as if by themselves, according to many non-public agreements: the circle of football and “near-football” groups that benefit from the same judicial flexibility is very wide. Broad and authoritative. “Near-football” personalities are not gangsters with baseball bats who solved problems in the 90s, but absolutely legal organizations and people who occupy seats in the Federation Council, and in provinces, and in power ministries, and in state corporations. These groups of high-ranking “fans” are difficult to oppose to the political president of the RFU, even if desired. And what to talk about if this desire is not there?