“Coercive measure”: RFU approved a ban on criticism of judges

The Russian Football Union (RFU) amended the ethics regulation. Under the new rule, officials, including players, coaches and other club representatives, are prohibited from publicly criticizing referee decisions. This was stated by the president of the organization Alexander Dyukov following the meeting of the executive committee.

“We considered this as a necessary measure. The reason is a peculiar culture of communication. Very often we are peremptory in our judgments, we turn to individuals and are too emotional in our assessments. This adds negative emotions to football, ”said Dyukov.

He stressed that the ban will not concern the media. In case of controversial issues during matches, officials should contact the referee-expert commission under the President of the RFU. For violation, a fine or disqualification may be imposed.

“Perhaps, the judge-expert commission or the head of the judiciary committee or the press service of the RFU will comment on the controversial decisions. No one is going to close. The “refereeing” section was created on the site, where there will be video materials with grades. We will respond to all questions promptly. I hope that in the future the tours will be without referee mistakes, ”the head of the RFU added.

The new rule has become part of the reform of refereeing, which is currently engaged in the RFU. In accordance with it, the system of training arbitrators will be modernized, including training in working with VAR, as well as the development of the regulatory framework. In general, the football authorities stated that the work of referees in matches should be brought to a unified style, involving the same interpretation of controversial issues and "contributing to the high intensity of modern football."

The new information regulation aims to change attitudes towards arbitrators.

“This does not mean that there is any censorship. That’s how all the big companies work, including FIFA. There may be disputes inside, but then everything goes to the press in a single position. We have many committees, and very often their members allowed themselves comments that diverged from our official position, ”Dyukov explained.

The ban on the public expression of one’s position regarding the activities of the arbitrators was partly a response to numerous cases of criticism from the representatives of the clubs, especially more recently.

So, one of the last such examples was the conflict between CSKA and the refereeing team after the meeting of the 18th round of the Russian Premier League (RPL), in which the army team tied with Krasnodar. First, a moment fell into the lenses of the cameras, during which the head coach of the red-blue Viktor Goncharenko used profanity in the address of the chief judge Vasily Kazartsev. For his actions, the mentor received a three-match suspension, as he already had a suspended sentence for a similar violation.

Then, the president of CSKA Evgeny Giner expressed sharp dissatisfaction with the functioning of the judiciary of the RFU. In one of the interviews, he called what was happening a lawlessness and blamed the head of the judging and inspection department, Alexander Egorov, who, in his opinion, was supposed to "shoot himself".

The Ethics Committee of the RFU suspended Giner from any activity related to football for a period of three months and one year probation, and also imposed a fine of 1 million rubles. Following the appeal, the sentence was commuted. In particular, the payment was halved, as well as the suspended sentence. It is worth recalling that earlier some clubs already expressed their dissatisfaction with the work of the judging and inspection department, and Giner’s position was supported by the leadership of Ural and Orenburg.

In early November, the RFU called on Egorov to establish a situation in the Russian refereeing, taking two months to do so. At the same time, a number of personnel changes took place. So, Ashot Khachaturyants was appointed head of the judiciary committee instead of Nikolai Levnikov.

“You see that we are following the path of formalizing our work. In late December - early January, an assessment will be given of its work based on the results of the first stage. As soon as the judicial committee makes recommendations, the executive committee will decide on the future of Yegorov, ”said Dyukov.

At a meeting of the executive committee, a number of other important decisions were made. So, together with the Ministry of the Interior, it was decided to create a working group that will have to resolve contentious issues related to the behavior of fans. Her first meeting, which may be attended by representatives of fan groups, will take place within a week. In addition, it was announced that it would be unlikely to introduce a FAN ID in the form in which it was present at the 2018 World Cup in the framework of the RPL.

At the same time, some proposals were not accepted by the RFU Executive Committee. So, the draft reform of the Professional Football League (PFL) was rejected. In accordance with it, the number of participants in the tournament should be maintained, while the number of groups was reduced from five to four - “West”, “Center”, “Ural-Privozhie” and “South” (the teams of the “East” were going to be divided into three groups).