In the Ukrainian championship, dismissals from the field have become such a common occurrence that no round goes by without them. Sometimes there are even several dismissals in one match — and this fact surprises no one nowadays. It is all the more difficult for the current generation of football fans to believe that before Ukrainian football started to operate independently, red cards were not just a huge rarity but a true extraordinary event.
Ivan Shariy
In the 70s and 80s, there were on average only 6-7 dismissals throughout the whole championship, no more. It was only in the early 90s that their number began to significantly increase. Interestingly, such a harsh verdict from the referee, like a red card, led to serious punishments for the players. Depending on the nature of the violation, some players were disqualified for 2-3 matches, while others for 5 or more.
But once there was a case where a disqualification lasted as long as 10 games. This happened to the famous forward Ivan Shariy, who was loved not only by the fans of his native Poltava but also by those in Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Vinnytsia, and Kremenchuk.
At the very start of the 1985 season, when Shariy was representing Odesa's "Chornomorets", his team was hosting Kyiv's "Dynamo" in a home match. During the first half, after a quick goal from Oleksandr Zavarov, the "sailors" were trailing 0:1, but in one of their attacks, midfielder Viktor Pasulko found himself in the visitors' penalty area and scored with a stunning shot. However, after a moment of pause, the Moscow referee Kyrylo Doronin disallowed the goal. At that moment, passions erupted on the frozen field of the sports arena, with Ivan Shariy at the center of it all.
— Yes, yes, that happened, — he recalls that episode with a smile in a story for Sport.ua as the "Chornomorets" forward. — Our team scored a goal and the referee counted it. But that was at first. At the moment when the Dynamo players went to kick off from the center, one of his assistants said something to him or signaled — and Doronin unjustifiably disallowed the goal.
— He seemed to have seen a handball by the Odesa player.
— You see, he is the main referee, so he made a decision based on what the linesman invented. There was no handball in that episode at all! It's unclear who it could have been by? At Pasulko? No, he couldn’t have done it. This is just the assistant Doronin’s fabrication. I don't even remember his last name.
— What happened next?
— I ran up to the referee, pushed him a little — and he fell on his backside. Doronin himself is small and thin. Moreover, I barely touched his chest. But that was enough, as it was slippery — so he ended up on the frozen ground. And when he got up, he showed me a red card.
— How did the senior coach of "Chornomorets" Viktor Prokopenko react to that?
— Well, how could he react... Of course, there was nothing good about my dismissal. But the red card cost me a long disqualification. All the guys on the team did not blame me, as they were not fools — they all clearly saw and understood everything that happened in that game.
— When did you learn the verdict of the members of the Sports and Technical Commission?
— A few weeks later in Moscow, where I was summoned for that purpose. "Chornomorets" was supposed to play another scheduled match against "Dynamo" there, so I flew with the team. We settled in the "Russia" hotel, where the meeting of the STC was held. Not in the walls of the football federation of the USSR or in the Sports Committee, as it should have been, but precisely in the hotel. On each floor in the lobby there were buffets. In one of them, they moved the tables to organize this meeting. All STC members were exclusively veterans of the Great Patriotic War, and there were no prominent football specialists among them. And these communists, adorned with medals, ruled: 10 matches of disqualification. It's good they didn’t send me to prison. But 10 games — excuse me, but that’s just too much. Well, let it be three matches. Or up to five — three full and two conditional. There are cases where for a little slap on the buttocks or hitting the referee with a fist they give five matches of disqualification.
— And then was there a banquet in the buffet?
— Perhaps, yes (laughs). They pronounced my verdict — and so we celebrated this victory.
— How did this long disqualification affect your career?
— It was a blow for me. Only after seven rounds of disqualification was I allowed to play for the reserves. I played three matches for the reserves, after which I could resume playing on the football field. What can I say, the STC's decision cut a large part of my season, leaving an unpleasant aftertaste. It was disappointing.
— Did you never encounter Doronin on the football fields later?
— Thank God, no. Because the meeting could have been not very pleasant. So that later those communist medallists wouldn't give me another 20 matches of disqualification.
Andriy Pysarenko
