Jozsef Szabo: "A catastrophe is brewing in our football"

Former Dynamo and national team coach Jozsef Szabo criticised the work of domestic referees after Saturday's Ukrainian league matches.

- Most of the matches were not without obvious mistakes by the referees, which often affect the outcome of the game. Our championship does not impress with the level of skill, which, unfortunately, is falling from year to year. And here the refereeing contributes to this with incomprehensible decisions.

Coaches, players, and journalists talk about mistakes. But where are the comments of the UAF Referees Committee leadership? It seems that they are satisfied with everything, everything is going smoothly in our refereeing. But, once again, listening to and reading the comments of the team coaches personally, as a former colleague of theirs, is very painful for me - because they are right in most of their claims.

UPL newcomer Obolon receives the most severe penalties in the form of eleven-metre penalties and sending-offs in every match, and almost every such decision raises questions.

As soon as the domestic league matches take place, the issue of refereeing immediately arises. I believe that this is no accident and indicates the low level of work of the refereeing teams in general. But those who are subordinate to the referees seem to have taken water in their mouths - no comments, no punishments, complete silence.

I don't understand what the Italian supervisor of the judiciary is doing. Right now, when there are so many questions to the referees, he should be explaining certain mistakes in refereeing, removing those unworthy of the job, improving the level of training and assignment of referees and their assistants to games.

I am convinced that all the shortcomings must be eliminated as soon as possible, otherwise a catastrophe in the organisation and conduct of games is inevitable in our football," said Jožef Jožefović.