RFU prepares reform of refereeing: proposals, causes, consequences

In domestic football, the first reform of judge in this decade is planned. The Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union adopted 12 proposals to improve its quality from the Russian Premier League (RPL). Among them are quite noticeable: for example, from the next season, the arbitration rating may be public, and RPL can get the right to request a check of possible violations of VAR protocol. The relevance of the reform was given by a significant number of judicial mistakes and simply controversial decisions this season. Some of them may affect the distribution of medals following the results of the championship of the country.

On Friday, March 28, summing up the results of the next meeting of his executive committee, the Russian Football Union (RFU) called the approval of « the results of the work group to improve the organization of sports judges of all -Russian competitions. »

In fact, behind a short formulation, it seems, something very similar to the intention to carry out a judicial reform is hidden, that is, to implement not individual adjustments, but a whole package of measures.

It will be the first in domestic football in the current decade.

The previous one at the end of the decade of the past was initiated by the head of the judicial committee of the RFU Ashot Khachaturants. In Russian football, as a result, a rating of judges, the separation of departments, controling arbitrators and inspectors (later, however, canceled), new principles of their stimulation appeared. The country’s head football structure did not specify exactly how to “improve” the “organization of sports refereeing” now, but from the statements made after the President of the RPL Alexander Alaev, it is clear that the changes in the case of final approval will be quite significant both in quantitative and in a high -quality sense.

Mr. Alaev explained that « 12 initiatives in judges » were accepted. In fact, we are talking about the list of proposals developed by the RPL clubs at the end of the year after meeting with the head of the judgment and inspecting the RFU Milorad Mazhich, who passed, as the functionary put it, “ambiguously”, and by its motives the analysis of the work of judges. In December, the document was submitted to the Executive Committee of the RFU, and then during the “constructive dialogue” was finalized.

Among the accepted initiatives, some look quite noticeable. They are primarily aimed at increasing the « transparency » of the work of judges.

So, Alexander Alaev reported that from the next season the Khachaturian in Ashota in Ashot Judge ratingon the basis of which appointments for matches are made and the size of the bonuses are determined, will become public.

In addition, the Executive Committee of the RFU will “fix” the league The right to « contact the Department of Protection of the Game to initiate an audit with a possible violation of VAR protocol ». This refers to the episodes that the arbiter video assistant system explores. Until now, the work of those who are responsible for its use remained closed, as well as the motivation of specialists in the recommendations of arbitrators. Also, RPLs, it is possible, will be able to request a video analysis of the disagreement of episodes from the expert-Swim commission under the President of the RFU, even if the club did not apply to the body.

Alexander Alaev said that together with the RFU preparing the « Development Strategy of the VAR system » in principle. She, apparently, will include an increase in the number of television cameras that follow the matches. Mr. Alaev emphasized that it will “require financing”, but, according to him, the League “is ready to discuss it”.

RFU President Alexander Dyukov, in turn, identified “six directions” of reforms considered by its structure. These are changes in the “normative-methodical base of refereeing”, its “organizational structure”, “more active PPL participation in the work of judges”, “expansion of communication and interaction with clubs”, “increasing openness” and “technical improvements in the work of VAR”.

Mr. Dyukov made it clear that the majority of proposals of the RPL RFS RFS is ready to approve, even if separate are reservations.

The decisions of the Executive Committee of the RFU look quite logical, given the severity of the topic related to refereeing. Usually speaking of her, Remember First of all, the resonant December performance of the Governor of the Samara Region Vyacheslav Fedorishchev, who patronizing the Club of Soviets. He spoke of the allegedly existing corruption in the Russian judiciary. In January, according to Mr. Fedorishchev, the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case “on the grounds of a crime under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud).  » He has no specific consequences yet.

But there are much more obvious factors that give the problem relevance. In the current season, despite the use of modern football technologies, the scope of marriage in the actions of the judges was quite high. Sport24 using judges experts Counted In the previous 21 round of the country’s championship, 16 “serious” – in other words that influenced the outcome of the meeting – arbitrators’ mistakes. Some of them occurred in games with the participation of the tournament leaders. According to the publication, if it weren’t for these mistakes in the first place “Krasnodar” would fall into the fourth position, losing the upper line “Spartak”. The total number of judicial inaccuracies was much larger. By data Sport-Express, in the autumn part of the championship, arbitrators made 44 erroneous decisions in 144 matches.

In addition, there are often moments from the category for a long time retaining the status of “controversial”.

This, say, is the moment from the central match of the 21st round in mid-March, in which Spartak beat-2: 1-Zenit, dropping it from the second position in the table. The victorious goal in the end was scored by Christopher Martins, and the goal was checked by VAR, which did not fix the situation outside the game, despite the fact that a significant part of the fans was sure that Martins distinguished himself from offsay. This confidence has still been preserved by Zenit, which presented his own storyboards of the episode. It followed that the Spartakovets was still in Offsade.

The top manager of one of the RPL clubs, evaluating the “Kommersant” results of the RFU Executive Committee, described them as “an unconditional shift in the right direction”. However, he noted that “it is big or small”, it will become clear, “only when the initiatives will be implemented in practice” and the football community will make sure that “the case is not limited to populist statements.”

Alexey Prepokhov