It is no secret that under the previous football authorities, refereeing in Ukraine was often simply "limitless". In a number of situations, one or another team was simply without the right to fight for achieving the result it needed - in the name of the other team being literally dragged to the championship. One season, another, another, another.... And there were simply no levers to combat this "lawlessness".
Photo — fcdynamo.comAnd that is why, with the change of the authorities, the Ukrainian football world had great hopes for changes, including in refereeing. Especially since they were promised.
However, a number of recent matches in the UPL, or rather, their arbitration, simply kills this hope. Because right now in the Ukrainian championship the same "oil painting" - with pulling up one by the ears and trampling into the lawn - the other. A clear example of this situation was Saturday's match of the 26th round of the UPL between Dnipro Dnipro-1 and Dynamo Kyiv (1:2), which was served by referees from Donetsk region: Yuriy Ivanov - in the field, and Oleksandr Omelchenko - on VAR.
If we talk about the first half, on the one hand, on the whole, there were no special questions about the refereeing. But it is important to note that before the break the game was given just to Dnipro-1, and Dynamo were clearly sluggish, which, in fact, even the players of the capital team did not deny after the match. However, even so, two moments are worth mentioning.
Firstly, on the 29th minute of the match the first strange decision of the main referee took place. When Kabaev fought for the ball with Adamyuk, Rubchinskiy literally flew into him at full speed, it all turned into a penalty kick... in favour of Dnipro-1... in favour of Dnipro-1.
Secondly, I would like to emphasise on Gutsulyak's actions in the situation with the goal of Dnipro-1. Yes, Dynamo's central defenders clearly made a mistake in this episode, and it was admitted by the team's head coach Oleksandr Shovkovskiy, but the Dnipro forward still "worked" with his hands on Popov. Maybe the question of whether it was a foul or not is debatable, but if the head referee (and together with him, by the way, the VAR) considered that everything went without any violation of the rules, it automatically predetermines the adoption of identical decisions in all similar situations. And we will refer to this when we get to one of the game episodes of the second half.
However, be that as it may, the situation with refereeing changed dramatically after the break! It changed so much that there was a strong feeling that the referees needed the Dynamo to lose points.
Already at the very beginning of the second half Babenko deliberately knocked down Vivcharenko, but for some reason he did not receive a yellow card for such a foul. But just a minute later Andriyevskyi was warned for a similar offence.
Then Dynamo managed to equalise the score. However, it is interesting that before Kabaev sent the ball into the net, there was a clear foul in the penalty area of Dnipro-1 on Vanat, but the head referee did not react to it.
In the next segment of the match, the referee in the field simply amazed with inconsistencies in decision-making. Thus, in the 69th minute of the game, Ocheretko met Voloshin with a natural wrestling hold, but the referee did not even think to reach for a yellow card. Shovkovskiy's indignation was understandable, as a little earlier Yarmolenko had been cautioned for simply catching an opponent in possession of the ball.
Two minutes later, Dyachuk received a yellow card. In the fight with Ocheretko, he first pushed the opponent with his body absolutely within the rules, and then made a hand movement in his direction. And here is the moment when it is necessary to return to the goal of Dnipro-1: in that situation a similar hand movement could be seen in the performance of Gutsulyak, but then the referee did not show a yellow card to the Dnipro forward - he did not see any infringement of rules from his side.
83rd minute. Babenko at first fought with Shepelev, but then he, apparently, got tired of it, and he simply threw the Dynamo player on the lawn with both hands. And what? That's right - no yellow card. Moreover, a minute later, two Dnipro players threw Vanat on the lawn, but the referee did not even see it as a violation of the rules.
The culmination of "strange refereeing" of the Donetsk team came in the 88th minute of the match. During Dynamo's corner kick, Sarapiy piled Brazhko on the lawn in the penalty area of Dnipro-1 with two hands. The foul, in my opinion, is obvious. But even if it was not a foul, this situation is guaranteed from the category of those that must be sorted out by VAR. And then, if necessary, the head referee. Apparently, Dynamo players were of the same opinion: they simply kicked the ball into touch, believing that after that there would inevitably be a pause for the VAR review of the aforementioned game episode. Yes, we can complain about the Dynamo players who made such a decision instead of bringing their attack to completion, but the point is that there was no VAR review! Otherwise, a pause in the game, typical for such situations, would have occurred: the VAR referees radioed a signal to the referee in the field to wait with the resumption of the game for the time of sorting out the game episode. However, this did not happen!
And now this is simply unthinkable! After all, VAR was created just for such situations. Exactly for such situations! That is the very essence of VAR. Failure to use VAR in such situations is the same as when you need to wash your hands and there is a washbasin, you didn't open the water tap and were left with dirty hands. Well, in this situation, the VAR judges are also, figuratively speaking, left with dirty hands.
More to the point. It was this unthinkable reaction of the VAR referees (or rather, the lack of any reaction), in fact, provoked the next key event of the match. While Dynamo players switched off from the game for a moment, waiting for a pause for the VAR to sort out the Sarapiy-Brazhko moment, Dnipro players quickly threw in an out on the signal of the head referee, which expectedly took the opponents by surprise. This also affected Tymchyk, who was late with a dash for Ocheretko, fouled him and received a red card for it. Again, we can discuss the fairness of this penalty (although, in my opinion, Tymchyk still moved slightly to the side of the opponent, not behind him, and tried to reach the ball in a scramble), but the main thing is that the VAR referees have a direct relation to this development of the situation, who did not start to sort out the episode with Brazhko's fall in the penalty area of Dnipro-1.
To Dynamo's honour, the team's response to such actions of the Donetsk referees was a winning goal and three points. The championship race continues and the degree of its struggle increases. But the question is whether at the same time the degree of "strange refereeing" in the matches with the participation of the main contenders for gold medals will not increase....
Alexander POPOV
