Famous manager and expert Vyacheslav Zakhovailo assessed the current state of refereeing in Ukraine against the backdrop of frequent refereeing scandals in the recent matches of the Ukrainian championship.
Vyacheslav Zakhovailo— I will say that the qualification of our referees is at a very poor level. This concerns the work of VAR as such. Because ambiguous decisions are made. Plus, there is a discrepancy in the interpretation of situations when the referee on the field and VAR assess the same situation differently.
No one is saying that they take money and make biased decisions. That’s out of the question. As they say, a thief uncaught is not a thief. But journalists, the public, specialists, and club representatives all note that the qualification of our referees does not meet the standards at the present moment. Everyone points out that our referees have a lot to work on. Let them hold training sessions and train the referees. Mistakes happen not only in the Ukrainian championship but in all other championships as well.
— That’s true, there can be no arguing here. However, in Spain, for instance, the president of La Liga dedicates live broadcasts to this topic, explaining it clearly step by step.
— It is your task as journalists, UAF — to propose that the actions of referees be public.
— It seems that one cannot accuse of a lack of transparency, considering that Ristoli makes reports on the actions of the referees after some time, when passions have settled. However, very often he lately admits that the referee missed something. It’s like in the well-known joke: “I just couldn’t, I couldn’t.”
— Again, we come back to the level of qualification of Ukrainian referees. It’s lagging behind, and there are reasons for it — poor training camps, poor lecturers, something was overlooked. You know how it is with us. Something was underestimated, poorly prepared referees. They give them bad directives regarding refereeing. In this, the interpretation changes. There are FIFA recommendations, UEFA, other nuances. All these matters need to be viewed professionally and questions should be asked to the relevant structures — how our referees were prepared, which camps they went through, what UAF is doing to prepare referees? This is where we should start.
— Is Ristoli in his position today?
— He is not an authority for me. For me, the authority is the game, the spirit of the game. Second — Ristoli is just like everyone else. He is not God who invented football; he is a conditionally Italian Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov. So let’s move away from stereotypes, there is no need to boast with names.
— However, the claims of representatives of “Shakhtar” that the team is being “sunk” have grounds, considering that Ristoli admitted the mistakes of the referees in some recent matches of the team?
— In any country, in Spain or Italy, such actions are part of the tactics and strategy of the big clubs. They create pressure on the referees, who in turn create pressure on the clubs. Why is this done? So that the referees are more lenient. Or just think a hundred times before making a controversial decision. That’s why there is media noise; there’s nothing shameful about it. This is football; that’s how it works. Lucescu used to walk around throwing hats. Yes, for us, this seemed wild, but for him, it was the norm. And I didn’t invent that; football came up with it.
