Obolon's coach and analyst Mykola Mykhailov told NV about the application procedure and whether Ivan Kalyuzhny could have known what was happening at the club.
Nikolay Mikhailov- What is the procedure for adding players to the match report? You are the one who does it at Obolon. Explain it step by step.
- The process itself is divided, roughly speaking, into two parts. The first is an application to the Ukrainian Premier League. The contract is brought in, stamped, registered and everything else. And then the name, number, date of the contract, in which list (A or B) it is declared, are entered in the application form. This is more of the same kind of work. And the second stage is getting a footballer's passport. If earlier it was all in print, now everything is in the UAF's information and analytical electronic system. When a player joins a club, he writes an application: "Please register me, a footballer of such and such a club... I agree with all the rules and so on." The person in charge of the federation checks that all the documents are in place. Only then do they receive the player's passport electronically. It specifically states for which team and when the player was registered. Ivan Kalyuzhnyi didn't have this, his passport said that he was still a player of the LNZ. But I looked at it for myself, so most likely, he is not on the application form either. I don't know how they managed to do that. The final option for a footballer to be eligible to play for a particular team is a footballer's passport. This is not an application to the UPL, because they are subordinate to the UAF. As for the game itself, there is a separate system. So far, it works only in the Premier League. That's its name: Premier League Information and Analytical System. And players have to be entered there. The day before the game, you have access to the line-ups. You enter your name there and the system automatically picks up the numbers and so on. The system already has everything and writes who plays for you. An application is formed there, which is then entered into the referee's report. 75 minutes before kick-off, you can see the opposition line-up, as well as the referees. Well, at least 60 minutes before the game. Otherwise, there will be a violation of the regulations. The referees receive the line-ups and they, of course, no longer check applications, passports and everything else. If they checked it as before, according to the old system, then at this stage it would turn out that there is no player on the application form. But since this procedure has been simplified, everything is different. Although it has become more convenient, because you don't go to the referees, you don't wait for them to come back from the field, check the report and so on. Everything is much more convenient now. But, as you can see, there is another side to the coin. Not everything is checked, and then there are problems like in Oleksandriya. And if nothing is checked at the preliminary stage, there will be nuances.
- First of all, are these the club's problems?
- Of course. There are no options here. When a person submits a report and clicks "publish", it says: "Do you confirm the information entered?". And you have to confirm the name of the person who did it. In my case, it is Mikhailov Nikolay Yurievich. I verify that I am responsible. But everything is spelled out in the regulations. It's not just called an information and analytical centre for nothing. It is not the last instance. Everywhere in the regulations it says that clubs are responsible for applications, counting yellow and red cards and so on. It's all on the clubs. Yes, the referees can sometimes get something too. But the person who is directly involved in this issue at the club is responsible.
- So Ivan Klyuzhny could not have known that he was not on the list of registered players of Oleksandriya?
- Well, he shouldn't know that. Footballers will not go around asking whether they have been registered or not, right? They came to the club, brought all the necessary documents and that's it. It's a mystery to me how they did it. From what I can imagine, Kalyuzhnyi was registered for Oleksandriya before that and they could have had everything in their database. And when you enter players into the report, players who don't exist can jump out at you. It just shows that he is declared and has no contract. The database itself could have failed to highlight that the player was not declared. But all responsibility lies with the clubs. And this is a fact, it is written everywhere. The same goes for substitutions, three slots. The referees may not notice something, but the clubs are fully responsible here.
- After the incident with Oleksandriya, will such things be given even more attention or will everything remain as it was? I'm talking about applications for matches.
- I have everything as it was. I am very much in control of every visit. There were cases when I was told that the player had already been declared, but I said that until the player's passport was available, he would not play. But this is more true for the U-19, because there they either added someone or withdrew them. There were cases when they declared someone at the beginning of the week, but for some reason they could not check it and issue a passport. It happened that passports were issued in the morning on the day of the game.
- This is a very vigilant job that constantly needs to be checked. Have you had any cases like the one with Kalyuzhnyi at Oleksandriya?
- There were other cases in the U-19. On Friday, conditionally, you declared a footballer, while everything was checked and given the go-ahead, then they could respond for the match itself. Some documents may not be available and you have to wait a long time, even if the contract has already been signed. But this is more about the youngsters, everything is easier in the first team. We didn't have the same situation as in Oleksandriya with Kalyuzhnyi.
Nazariy Shmigil
