Winners do not complain about arbitrators

There are unwritten laws in life that, although not approved by anyone, operate no less inexorably than Archimedes' law, Newton's law, Boyle-Mariotte, Gay-Lussacca, and others.

According to one of these laws, a kilogram of potatoes bought at the market will never weigh more than a thousand grams. Anything less than that is fine, but anything more than that is not! Wherever you buy these potatoes, whoever weighs them and on what, this law will always be in effect!

Similarly, football has a lot of unwritten but inevitable laws. According to one of them, the winning team will never complain about the referee's actions. Even if the referee awards five undeserved eleven-meter penalties and disregards five clean goals. The winners will forget about it the second the final whistle blows.

The losers are another matter. Usually they admit defeat, congratulate the opponent on their victory, and promise to improve in the next game. But other things happen. Especially in our country. Personally, I grew up on the "legend of Van Ravens". There was a referee from the Netherlands who allegedly prevented the USSR national team from losing to Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the 1970 World Cup. I was at school at the time and sincerely believed it. Then there was the "legend of Fredriksson," a referee from Sweden who prevented the USSR national team from losing to Belgium in the last eight of the 1986 World Cup.

At that point, I had my doubts. Later, it was time for the "legend of Pedersen," the Norwegian referee who "prevented" the Ukrainian team from beating Croatia in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers. By then, I understood everything well, but attempts to debunk this legend proved futile. The last of these "legends" was about Kaszsay, a referee from Hungary who "prevented" Ukraine from defeating England in the Euro 2012 group tournament. This legend was outright ridiculous and could not stand up to any criticism.

But all these legends have lived on as long as there are people who remember those times. Why? Because it is very convenient to blame everything on the arbitrator! Especially in Ukraine, because corruption is part of our lives, so most Ukrainians believe that "everything is bought" immediately and with pleasure.

In our football, the issue of referees who "don't let you win" has become a cyclopean one over the years. Why not? Why admit that your team was not ready for the game and deservedly lost when you can blame everything on the referee? It seems that players, coaches, and sometimes owners of teams playing in the Ukrainian championship dream from the very first minute of the game that the referee will make a gross mistake in favor of the opponent. Then, in case of failure, they can blame everything on that referee. In case of victory, as we know very well, no one will remember this.

Interestingly, all this is typical only for our championship. In England, no one would even think of explaining a defeat by the referee's actions. Because there, the referee is a participant in the process that helps create a football spectacle worth hundreds of millions. Therefore, to criticize the referee means to reduce the value of this spectacle! This is when you think economically. If you think ethically, then a team that knows its worth and is confident in its abilities should respond to a mistake, whether it is the referee's or its own, with new attacks and three goals! And not stop fighting after an "unfairly" conceded goal, as our players often do - why give the fight your last strength when you already have an "excuse" in the form of a referee's mistake?

You have already realized that I am writing all this under the impression of Dynamo's shameful defeat by Ingulets in the last match of the Ukrainian championship. True Kyiv Dynamo players who value the honor of the team should not complain about the referees, but play in a way that is worthy of the high honor of being Dynamo players! I hope that in the next game it will be so - Dynamo will win and, in accordance with the law, will not complain about the referee!

Mykola NESENYUK