Igor Tsyganik expressed his opinion on the last two scandalous matches involving Shakhtar in the Ukrainian championship.
Igor Tsyganik"I don't know if this Shakhtar will be the strongest in history, I doubt it. But I have no doubt that it will be the most vile and arrogant. What is happening in Ukrainian football is simply not acceptable. There must be some respect. You wear patches that say Respect, and I am terribly sorry that we can get a champion in such matches. Two matches that are worth discussing and to which there are significant complaints.
The champion cannot afford to have so much talk about this particular team, given the way they behave on the pitch or in the offices. That would not be a true champion. I remember how some people laughed at me when I said that the fight for €40 million was starting. I said that in the autumn, and now spring has begun - look what we have. There are two situations that outraged me.
First. The Oleksandriya vs Shakhtar match. Rotan's team played very confidently and took points from the Pitmen. The next day, it was reported that Oleksandriya did not declare Kalyuzhnyi and they would be awarded a technical defeat, which was officially announced by the UAF SCC today. The decision is absolutely logical. I have only one question: shouldn't the competition regulators be responsible for all this? We are talking about artificial intelligence, but we cannot check the list of declared or undeclared players. We have Diya, which the rest of the world doesn't have, but we can't check the players' cards. Do you believe that this could happen? In the 90s, I still played in the district championship, and there were so many people who checked whether you were registered for the team or not. They checked your photo, checked your date of birth. You had to take your birth certificate with you. And now we have given the UPL three points that can decide the fate of the championship. Is there any objectivity?
I have no complaints about Shakhtar. In general, no one has ever had any complaints about Shakhtar - they are a holy team. I agree a million per cent with the opinion of the former UPL CEO Oleksandr Yefremov. This man clearly understands how the processes work. I am surprised that none of the authorities who are supposed to ensure the effectiveness of the competition helped Oleksandriya, did not suggest that they had made a mistake. I do not believe that no one knew about it. How did they miss it? Or maybe someone did it on purpose? If they lose, we'll turn a blind eye to it, and then we'll quietly make a statement. And there will be more moments like this... This is called the fight for 40 million euros, for the Champions League. Give them that Champions League, but let them have a normal and calm championship.
Second. Shakhtar vs Kryvbas match. "The Pitmen are the first to score a clean sheet. Kryvbas responds very well and then comes the second goal, scored by Kryskiv. Everywhere Shakhtar have the word Respect written on them. Respect. And here we are: there is a fight, a player falls and lies on the pitch, a player from your team. I mean, he's distracting attention in this way. But there is respect, maybe something happened to him there. But no one even thought to go over and see if he was okay. The opposing players came up and asked if he was okay.
During this time, everyone stopped, looked at the referee, a pass was made and a goal was scored. At that moment, the referee was ready to blow the whistle to stop the game, but when he saw that Shakhtar had a promising attack, he changed his mind and then pointed to the centre. What about your own player? Or is that 40 million just going to hurt your eyes? You have to have some respect, at least for your partner. Respect for the opponent who came to help your partner. Now I have a question for Kryskiv: they came to your partner to give him a hand and lift him up, not to their player. I understand that you want to score, there is no other option, the score is 1-1 and we understand that we may not win against Kryvbas. An interesting confrontation... it could have been.
Let's recall. Did Adriano score a clean sheet for Nordsjælland? Yes, he did. But what a scandal it was! How ashamed we all were that the Ukrainian team did that. Do you remember what UEFA's decision was? Adriano was disqualified for 1 match. Explanation: UEFA disciplinary rules. Article 5: general principles of conduct. And for this, Adriano was disqualified, although he scored a clean ball. Because there is fair play, there is respect, there is fair play, there is respect.
Now about the referee's behaviour. There is a rule violation, a player is down. You know that referees have recommendations: if a player is lying on the pitch after the whistle, then you have to go and make sure he is okay and only then resume the game. When Kryskiv made the pass, Zubkov was on the pitch.
But this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that the rules clearly state that the ball must be put into play from the place where the offence took place. Kryskiv started his scoring attack five metres from the spot where the foul took place. Five metres away! And it was already in the immediate vicinity of Kryvbas' goal, and the referee had to pay attention, blow his whistle, stop the game and say that the ball should be put in from this spot to ensure the objectivity of the episode. This is a referee who officiates Champions League matches. With Kryvbas already 2-1 up, it was clear that they were unlikely to win back the game the second time around, as they were more comfortable playing from the defensive end.
Then there was the sending off. I agree, it was a red card that Ilić received in the second half. And in September, at the beginning of the championship (below is a screenshot), there was a match between Minaj and Shakhtar, after which the whole of Minaj was on its ears. And this moment with Sudakov was a close second, even worse. But here the referee gave a yellow card. And if he hadn't, who knows if Shakhtar would have got the points. And in the match against Kryvbas, it was a red card that broke the whole intrigue. First, we scored a goal without a free kick, then we got sent off.
The approaches do not change. "Shakhtar are not more cunning, they are just more impudent and mean. But they are not more cunning. Because they know they are allowed to do this, that it will pass. If we don't pay attention to it, it will happen all the time. We need to get rid of this "Stockholm syndrome" towards offenders who are constantly trying to impose their point of view. This is not right. And we will have such a champion. I'm not sure we need such a champion," Tsyganik said on Tsyganik Live.
