Vasily Kazartsev, the chief referee of the Spartak - Sochi meeting, was suspended from work as a judge for an indefinite period. This was announced by the General Secretary of the RFU Alexander Alaev.

“The Refereeing Committee has completed its investigation into the referees of the match“ Spartak ”-“ Sochi ”Vasily Kazartsev and Alexey Eskov. The arbitrators have successfully passed the polygraph test following the results of this game. I want to thank them for their cooperation. Despite this, the RFU decided to suspend Kazartsev from work as an arbiter for an indefinite period of time, "Sport-Express quotes Alayev.

After a detailed analysis of all the controversial episodes, it was decided that the second penalty against Alexander Maksimenko was assigned by Kazartsev by mistake. Recall that in the 88th minute in the penalty area of ​​"Spartak" there was a clash between the defender of the red and white Samuel Zhigot and the midfielder of "Sochi" Anatoly Nemchenko. The referee did not watch the video replay and appointed a 11-meter one, trusting the opinion of Eskov. He, in turn, argued that in such situations the assistant has no right to contradict the chief arbiter.

The expert and refereeing commission came to the conclusion that there was a "normal game contact" between the players.

“The Commission unanimously decided that there was no violation. At the moment of hitting the goal, Gigot did not engage in single combat, but blocked the ball with his left foot. Then there is a so-called game collision, which both players could not avoid, ”stated ESC expert Nikolai Levnikov.

Yeskov's actions were also recognized as incorrect, since the VAR assistant was supposed to intervene in the decision of Kazartsev, who made an "obvious mistake." At the same time, nothing was reported about the sanctions against the assistant, although Spartak also called for his removal.

"The ESC under the President of the RFU recommends the video assistants of the referee to be more careful in assessing the key moments of the match, since the accuracy of the decision is more important than the speed of its adoption," the commission said in a statement.

A large number of questions were also raised by the episode that occurred in the 14th minute, when the defender of the Moscow team Pavel Maslov hit striker Kirill Zaika on the leg. Kazartsev appointed a penalty in favor of Sochi, also relying on Eskov. However, in this case, his decision was recognized as correct.

“The referee had reasons to appoint the 11-meter. Despite the fact that the Spartak player first touched the ball, before that he knocked his opponent's leg with his knee. Therefore, the commission supported the judge's decision. In such cases, when the moment is not obvious, according to the protocol, VAR does not interfere with the actions of the refereeing team, "Levnikov explained.

In addition, there was no doubt about the yellow card shown to Sochi midfielder Sergei Terekhov at the end of the first half.

At the same time, the RFU did not ignore the numerous statements of the owner of "Spartak" Leonid Fedun, who repeatedly accused the referee of bias and lack of professionalism. In particular, after the match with Sochi, he spoke about the “arbitrariness” and “persecution” of the team by the referees. Now, on the initiative of Alaev, his application will be considered by the ethics committee.

“The RFU is doing and will continue to do everything possible to protect fair play, but we will also protect the reputation of our referees,” concluded the Secretary General of the Union.

Most likely, the meeting of the ethics committee will take place next week, but the exact date is not yet known.

Commenting on the decision of the ESC, General Director of Spartak Shamil Gazizov expressed gratitude for the work to improve the quality of refereeing. At the same time, he stressed that the club sees no reason to consider Fedun's statements in the ethics committee.

"Football club" Spartak-Moscow "thanks the RFU for the constant work to improve the quality of the work of the referees. We believe that in the future, the representation of Russian football referees in European and world tournaments will grow steadily, ”Gazizov said.

As for the successful passage of the polygraph by Kazartsev and Eskov, the functionary stressed that the club initially "did not suspect anything bad."