The General Director of «Rukh», Ihor Dedushin, has commented on the «Polissya» initiative regarding meetings of clubs with the consultant on arbitration of UAF, Nicola Rizzoli, and the head of the UAF referee corps, Kateryna Monzul.
— The football club «Rukh» definitely supports all healthy initiatives aimed at improving our championship, including those related to arbitration. That is, we support the initiative of the football club «Polissya».
Moreover, «Rukh» recently initiated a similar meeting with the participation of Kateryna Monzul, the head of the Ethics and Fair Play Committee and the head of the Stadiums and Safety in Competition Committee. We planned to discuss two issues: arbitration and the quality of the fields.
At that time, we prepared a letter, and even five or six clubs supported us by signing it. Among them were «Shakhtar», «Dynamo», «Veres», and «Obolon». We addressed the Premier League, which communicated with UAF, with the Referees Committee. Our club wanted to discuss these topics even then.
However, at that moment, all interested parties concluded that it was too early to talk about anything and to make any premature conclusions. Then everyone agreed that it would be appropriate to give some evaluations after a certain interim period. For example, after the end of the autumn part, to analyze this segment of the championship, identify the issues, and work on them.
Therefore, we support and will support all kinds of such initiatives and the desire to improve both arbitration and the condition of the pitches, and generally all matters related to the organization of the championship.
Regarding the assessment of the quality of arbitration in Ukrainian football in general, we believe that this is the sphere of competence of professional profile people. In our opinion, it would be appropriate and right to involve specialists and experts with serious experience in officiating matches at the highest level in Europe.
Perhaps, these should also be foreign specialists that we have. In particular, UAF arbitration consultant Nicola Rizzoli is a very authoritative figure in European and world football. He could also involve his colleagues from other European championships who officiated matches under the UEFA and FIFA aegis in this evaluation process. Accordingly, they could provide a comprehensive and quality assessment. This would be correct.
Because the clubs themselves are interested parties. Each of them, to a certain extent, faces decisions by referees that they consider unfair towards their teams. But if we want to get the most objective analysis with an objective assessment, we need to involve specialists in this matter.
However, clubs can and should express their subjective opinions and comments within the working group when everyone gathers, with the presence of representatives from the Referees Committee. Everyone would gather, speak openly — that would be a plus. Because if now every club starts to publicly give evaluations, it will turn into chaos. We will simply eat each other, tear apart these referees and the whole system. This will lead to nothing good.
Because there are indeed problems, as in any other sphere. But, firstly, I do not see anyone hiding or suppressing these problems. Including the Referees Committee. If referees make mistakes, the same Rizzoli openly and publicly states this. The only thing I would also like to understand is the system and methods of punishment or suspension of referees for mistakes.
Secondly, among clubs and in the media, there is hardly any discussion about financial influence on the work of referees from some clubs. Perhaps this is related to the same polygraph. We can argue about how legal and appropriate this is, but we hear that it really affects referees and clubs. This season, there has been no talk of attempts to financially stimulate referees. Referees are really wary of encountering a polygraph. This is also one of the preventive measures that, as we see, works. The introduction of the polygraph, in my opinion, has impacted the integrity of the arbitration system.
I believe that the manner and style of officiating our matches have also changed. The fact that they have started to allow more physical duels, there are fewer whistles, this is definitely a plus for both players and fans.
In all matches of the round, the VAR system has started working. I also consider this a plus for improving match officiating. There are, of course, some questions to the work of VAR referees. Errors occur here. But in this context, attention should also be paid to the work of film crews that carry out broadcasts of matches. Because it is from the OB van that VAR referees receive signals and images. Sometimes, there is poor quality work from operators who may miss some important moment or give a blurry frame, which affects the assessment of the episode by VAR referees. I believe that two more cameras should be added to the mandatory eight that would work along the goal lines. They could effectively replicate events in the penalty area and help better record goals. This would clearly assist VAR referees. Such a practice was applied at the final of the Ukrainian Cup last season and proved itself well.
And we definitely will initiate and insist that the UPL TV channel soon introduce a specialized program about the work of Ukrainian referees. I believe that the publicity and quality of discussions and analyses of referees' decisions by qualified, including foreign, specialists will also become one of the elements of improving match officiating, — said Dedushin.
