On the chivalrous attitude towards arbitrators

Quite unexpectedly, one of the main and most discussed events in Ukrainian football was brought by the match of the first league between Polissya Zhytomyr and Metalurh Zaporizhia. Or rather, just one episode of this meeting.

At the last minute of the match, one of the decisions of the chief referee of the match, Sofia Principality, caused dissatisfaction with the Polesie players. And the defender of this team, Vadim Chervak, was so overcome with emotions that he ran up to the referee at high speed and, as a result, pushed her in the back (video here ).

Inappropriate behavior. In general, without questions and any irony! Inappropriate both in relation to a woman and in relation to a match referee.

Pushing a woman is nothing to discuss at all. In my life coordinate system, in the coordinate system of any man who is adequate for me, you can raise your hand against a woman in one and only one situation: if you know for sure that she will react to this ... well, let's say, with an exclamation " Yes!". Or send you any other signal that unequivocally says that the very thing that she now wanted to receive from this world has happened in her life (and from you, of course, a fighter such as from the plenipotentiary representative of this world and its pranks under the circumstances).

And pushing the referee is categorically unacceptable by the rules of the game of football. And all sorts of regulatory norms prescribe disciplinary sanctions for such actions.

What happens next.

First of all, the referee quite naturally showed the player a red card and he was removed from the field. From the point of view of the rules of the game, football is clear. And from the point of view of the attitude towards a woman? Nothing happened. Firstly, the one who offended the woman, to whom he raised his hand, did not apologize (he did this later, and on the social network). Secondly, none of the other players gave the culprit in the face and did not even explain anything "like a man" - and after all, this is the only way men should react when, in their presence, another man raises his hand to a woman (well, if it's just not the same the only possible situation).

In general, in terms of behavior towards a woman, this is the end of the story. Bad ending to a bad story.

But from the point of view of behavior towards the referee and the rules of football, the story could not end there. In such situations, the disciplinary authorities consider the episode and decide on the punishment for the football player - they decide how much to remove him from football. For one match, for five, for ten. Or for a month, two, three.

Usually, for such incidents, when a football player in an emotional outburst runs into a referee, a disqualification is assigned in the form of a fairly limited number of matches - three, well, ok, five. It's rare when a footballer gets a suspension for three months, let's say. It should be something special in terms of violations of the rules of football.

An example, when after the match of the Cup of Ukraine in 2016 the players of Dnipro Roman Zozulya and Ruslan Rotan received half a year, I think it is completely incorrect to cite in this case. Because then it was not about a single emotional outburst that led to a single physical impact on the referee - then it was, in fact, an attack on the referee, about a long-term aggression, which eventually turned into a protracted brawl with the participation of players from both teams . So the instigators of all this, respectively, received. Actually a different story!

So. As a result, the Polesye player Chervak, who pushed the female referee, received from the UAF FTC ... six months of suspension from football! Six months! And even before that, Polesie terminated the contract with him, fired him.

None of the men of this football club began to "speak like a man" with the one who pushed the woman, but the football player was fired. None of the members of the FTC UAF began to "speak like a man" with Chervak ​​for his unacceptable behavior towards a woman, but they "soldered" him six months of disqualification. Here are the men! Here are the flints! Knights without fear and reproach!

But God is with them, with those "knights" (especially if they are members of the UAF). Here another and, I think, the main question arises: would the consequences in football (!!!) be the same for this football player if the referee whom he pushed was a man? Would he definitely have received a whole six months of disqualification, and the club would have terminated the contract with him?

If the answer to this question is “yes”, then everything is fine. But I think many, if not all, understand that the answer is actually “no.” I think that in this situation, a football player would receive a typical suspension of matches for five, and the football club would fine him at most (and even then, I personally doubt it very much).

But the thing is, if the answer is “no”, then everything is bad. Because the rules of the game of football, which do not prescribe any gender differences, turn out to be interpreted differently for different genders. And there are two options: either there should not be such a double interpretation, or the rules should clearly state what they are for situations in which only men are involved, what they are for situations in which both men and women are involved, and what they are for situations in which only women are involved.

In football, there can be no men and women in terms of observing the rules of this game and the regulations - only participants in a football match. For which there are uniform rules.

Yes, women always remain women, and men remain men. That is why, before the start of the match, the referee is often given flowers, if in this case the referee is a woman, and the players are men. But if you took the whistle in your hands, then you are an arbitrator, not a man! And if you took the whistle in your hands, then you are again a referee, not a woman. Football is definitely a tough sport. But after all, everyone goes into it at will, understanding all the features of this game.

In a word, my firm conviction based on the results of this whole story is that Chervak ​​should have been punched in the face in the locker room after the match (because a woman always remains a woman - no one cares about your emotions, don’t you dare raise your hand against a woman!), but no one Thus, it was impossible to punish with a six-month suspension from football and deprivation of work for this misconduct in relation to the match referee.

Alexander Popov