«Obolon» CEO Oleksandr Riznychenko spoke about the UPL clubs meeting regarding the arbitration system in the Ukrainian championship.
Oleksandr Riznychenko (right)«This issue was raised last season. There was a UAF meeting attended by Kateryna Monzul and General Secretary Ihor Gryshchenko. Therefore, the issue was discussed then and measures were devised to visit one of the European countries and study how everything is organized in this regard there.
Germany was chosen, and representatives from „Polissya“ and Kryvyi Rih went there. They returned and reported. We developed a project, our vision, and approved it yesterday at a general meeting. All 16 clubs voted in favor. We will now pass it to the UAF for processing, and another working meeting will take place to understand the UAF’s stance on this issue. If they wish to make changes, we will move forward on this matter.
All 16 UPL clubs were present at this gathering yesterday. Everything was recorded according to protocol and statute requirements to avoid any questions. Each project point was individually voted on, leading to its adoption as a whole. The decision was made to forward it to the UAF for further processing and discussion.
We understand that there will be many questions and a lot of work, but something needs to change in Ukraine as we frequently hear discussions about errors in the refereeing corps after each round.
Do these innovations mean that the clubs want to establish a separate body together with the UAF to oversee the referees' work? Certainly. This should be a separate, independent body containing representatives from the UPL, PFL, and the UAF. A body that will manage all these processes. There shouldn’t be such secrecy as we currently have in our Referee Committee.
They rely on some convention that no one has seen or heard of. When our representatives communicated in Germany, they were asked: „What convention? We’ve never seen or heard of it. We are open to all clubs, answer all calls, and provide explanations. Referees come out and explain their mistakes.“ If a referee makes a mistake, for example, they can face the clubs, hold a press conference, review the match, and apologize for the error.
However, the main issue is that clubs do not currently participate in approving the referees, whom the Referees Committee appoints for the season and these matches. Overall, the UPL is the employer, as it covers everything except, perhaps, equipment. The UPL pays for training, assemblies, accommodation, meals, etc. Salaries are borne by the Ukrainian clubs. How can they influence these or other moments?
Referees must also feel responsible for their actions and understand that if they make gross errors, they may judge and work on matches perhaps in a week or two, in a month, or they may even be sent to work in the First League. A decision like this would simply increase the referees' accountability for their actions. This is one aspect.
The second aspect. Currently, it is practiced in Europe that if a referee goes to watch VAR, they come out and announce to the entire stadium why they made that decision. Why shouldn’t we adopt this practice? Therefore, we will hope to proceed with these proposed changes. We aren’t inventing anything for ourselves, nothing new. We just want to adopt the best practices currently available in other European countries. That’s all. If the UAF leadership wishes to make changes, we will assist.
And the most important thing in this situation is that the responsibility for the referees and their quality is shared by the UPL and the PFL. It can no longer be said that it’s only the Referees Committee. In our view, the Referees Committee’s task is to prepare referees, assess how they performed, and recommend referees for the UPL, PFL, U-19, etc. But there should already be a structure to reward these referees or guide them in a different direction if they are not responsibly performing their duties or lack professionalism. That’s all,» Riznychenko said.
