“With the advent of VAR, it has become more difficult to deceive referees”: referee Sukhoi on conflicts with players, behavior of coaches and self-isolation

“After one game, the footballer pounced on me with his fists”

- You started judging quite early, and already at the age of 23 you worked at PFL matches. How did you end up in this profession?

- Like all boys, he dreamed of becoming a professional player. When playing for the older age categories, I was offered to try to judge. After a two-month course, he went to the Football Federation of the Moscow Region. I was 16 years old then. I wrote a statement, went through training and started working on the matches of the youngest children. At the same time, he continued to play at regional competitions, but quickly realized that I did not qualify for the KFK (Russian championship among clubs of the third division. - RT ).

- Did you have more prospects in refereeing?

- Two years later, there he could work as a lineman. I decided to try. Moreover, he entered the Moscow State Academic Budgetary Academy of Finance at the Faculty of Theory and Methodology of Football. And when the prospects appeared to judge in KFK, I was advised to end my football career.

- Remember your debut in the PFL?

- I well remember all my debut matches in the new leagues. The transition from one level to another is always exciting. You worry and don’t know what to expect. And in general you experience mantle before each match. He leaves only with the starting whistle. In this we are no different from the players.

- What was the outcome of the debut meeting?

- In fact, little is remembered in the PFL. Much more memorable is the first game in the FNL. It was May 2011. “Torpedo” from Vladimir took “Ural”. Then it was not easy, because in terms of speeds between the leagues - the abyss. It was difficult for me to keep up with the players. After the match, my work was appreciated very well, but when I later reviewed the meeting, I realized that in four or five moments I lagged behind the episodes.

- In the RPL is much more complicated?

- Of course. If in PFL people get the ball, then they raise their heads and think to whom to give it, then in the RPL they think two steps forward. The same goes for judges. In the third division, you think how to settle in the game episode, in the first - you do the same on the machine. The feeling of the game comes only in practice.

- In the lower leagues ever faced with threats in their address?

- At the professional level, no, but in KFK it happened. After one game, a football player attacked me with fists. He was immediately dragged away by both his own and others. He showed a red card and logged the episode. As a result, he was disqualified for six months.

- You started your judicial career at a fairly young age. Surely, at first the players tried to put moral pressure on you ...

- You know, I myself am quite a quick-tempered person, and often turned on. I constantly had the feeling that most of my disputes with the players arose because of age. I found contact with difficulty, because they were not only older, but also wiser. I had to remove the players, scream. Now, of course, it's easier, because I got older and gained the necessary experience.

- There are referees who emphasized to distance themselves from the players. Others, on the contrary, willingly communicate with them and explain their decisions. How do you build relationships on the field?

- I try to keep some middle ground. In no case can you completely explain nothing to the players. Otherwise, the contact will be lost, and it will become impossible to manage them.

I try to step back at the beginning of the meeting, when the atmosphere has not yet had time to heat up. But after some difficult episodes, you can tell why he made this or that decision, for example, gave a yellow, not a red card. Then most of the guys understand everything, and the match continues.

- Vladislav Radimov, when he was a Zenit footballer, after one of the matches with Lokomotiv, accused the judge of using the mat. Is this possible today?

- Unreal. The players and I are sailing in the same boat, we are doing one thing, we must respect each other. Somewhere I can say: “Enough”, “Calm down” or “Take your hands off”, but without using foul language.

- But the players themselves are not particularly holding back ...

- If a football player swears, and it is obvious that this is addressed to you, you should not be silent. Red card without talking. But to understand this is very difficult. The judge is all in the game, watching the episode, and then someone on the side says something. It’s hard to figure out who. For swearing at me, I deleted people, but not in the Premier League. In RPL and FNL, discipline is usually at a level, but below it is sometimes lame.

- Which RPL players have you had a particularly hard time with?

- I would not want to single out someone. Each team has one or two “difficult” players in terms of refereeing, communication and control.

- But you, before each match, are likely to discuss with the assistants, who should be watched especially closely?

- Of course. Before leaving the stadium, the referee always conducts a mini-briefing. We are discussing how we will act today, what nuances exist. If there is a roster, we analyze by personalities: you need to look carefully at this, the other likes to pretend, and the third often elbows opponents. But the reputation of these players should not affect our decisions. You can not give a foul on a person due to the fact that he often falls at the first touch. You need to be guided only by the moment.

“The match has just begun, and Wernbloom is already flying a tackle”

- You did cross several times with one of the rudest RPL football players Pontus Wernblum. What do you remember about him?

- The Swede always starts the whole team. The match has just begun, and he is already flying into a tackle. Pontus always walked to the end, put his foot and body very hard, never backed down. He also almost always complained about different decisions. But this is usually the behavior of the most dedicated players - they are constantly dissatisfied with something. If such a player played hard - this is not a foul, but if the exact same level of rudeness was allowed against him - violation of the rules.

- Who else was surprised in terms of dedication?

- Gokdeniz Karadeniz. Man was already under 40, and he fought to the end. The Turk is a small sprout, but powerful and charged his partners with his actions. A real motor.

- Surely, there are a lot of RPL and simulators trying to deceive the judges in every match?

- People who have a weakness for simulation have always been, but again, I would not stand out. And with the advent of VAR it became more difficult to deceive us, because the referee can always watch a replay. The same applies to stealth strikes. In this regard, the Russian championship has become cleaner. People understand that they are constantly under the watch of not only three judges, but also 15 cameras. By the way, when entering the field, we always remind the players about this. Understand, the referees are always for real men's football. As a reference, the Premier League, which we love for the fight.

- How do you protect tech players from constant kicks?

- We have the unspoken principle of three comments for the violator of the rules. You warn him for the first foul, for the second - you give the last “Chinese”, and for the third - a yellow card. But the problem is that the players are specially folded in turn so that no one gets the “mustard”. First, one will hit the legs, then the second and so on. So technical guys are trying to unsettle, forcing them to part with the ball as quickly as possible. We must monitor this and with the help of cards do everything so that the level of rudeness does not go off scale.

- Does one of the players thank the referees at the end of the match with enviable regularity?

- Sergey Ryzhikov. Years go by, but his behavior does not change. Very friendly. Before the game he will always wish good work, and after that he will thank him. It even happened that mistakes were not made in favor of his teams, but he approached: “Well, nothing, guys, today is not your day.” I haven’t heard anything bad from him.

- Which of the RPL coaches did you remember for your correctness?

- You know, here I can’t single anyone out. Before the match, they all behave appropriately, say hello. If the result is good, they will come up and thank you for the game. If not, questions begin. And I don’t blame them. After all, coaches are the hardest. They give installation to the wards and can do nothing else. Therefore, everyone has emotional breakdowns. Nobody enters the referee’s talk, it’s simply forbidden.

- How do you manage to maintain composure when the players or coaches start yelling at you?

- Judges are a special category. People who do not know how to control themselves do not linger in our profession. The referee knows how to suppress the emotions and bends his line, no matter what. If I made a decision, I won’t change it. Suppose I saw that a man played with his hand in his own penalty area and awarded a penalty. He will assure that he did not break the rules, will show the trace of the ball on the shirt. And then on the replay you will see that he did everything right, because the offender stained the shirt five minutes before the foul. At a high level in judging, only psychologically stable people are detained.

- It happened that after the matches they suffered from insomnia, like footballers?

- It is very difficult to fall asleep. If the game starts at 19 o’clock, the dream does not come earlier than 3-4 in the morning. The next day you are completely empty. Arriving home, no recovery. After especially hard matches I don’t even want to talk, because you give all your strength to the field. And I begin to look at the game for analysis only on the fourth - fifth day. Immediately after doing this it is difficult - you begin to defend yourself and interpret any controversial episode in your favor.

- How do you remove this stress?

- Bath, pool, cross-country, stretch marks. Psychologically, I am recovering next to my family, but it’s not easy for them. After the game you are empty and annoyed. This stage is not only judges, but football players and even coaches. After all, they also receive severe nervous exhaustion, a great burden lies on the mentors.

- Judges can not afford to relieve tension with alcohol?

- I do not mess with alcohol. If this condition is aggravated by intoxication, then it will be even worse, and the process will only drag on. And the recovery and preparation cycle for the next game should never be broken. If you do this, you simply cannot judge in the next round.

“In two weeks we’ll get in shape”

- From the RFU they sent you a program for maintaining physical fitness. What does it include?

- We were offered a class schedule that includes static and running exercises. All this can be done indoors. There are standards that we must be prepared for. And so for each judge, special recommendations have been developed.

- Your colleague Aleksey Yeskov said that “the body cannot understand what is happening now,” because for decades it got used to stress in the spring. Do you feel it?

- Of course. Not only physically, but also morally hard to sit at home. Over the years in refereeing, I got used to flights, matches. And here you have to be in four walls. The only plus is spending time with my family. But it is difficult to constantly be in a limited space. And that I can still go into the courtyard of the house. And what those who live in apartments have, I can’t imagine.

- How difficult will it be to restore shape after the resumption of the season?

- If we are given two weeks of full-fledged training, everything will be fine, we’ll get in shape. But for this, stadiums and fitness centers must be opened.

- The same Yeskov said that he is currently viewing his matches. Are you doing this?

- I don’t watch the whole game, only certain episodes. And they are divided into categories, for example, "game management". Everything is divided into blocks. I wanted to see what controversial moments I had with the game with my hand - I open a special folder.

- What else do you do in your free time?

- Now in the Department of refereeing of the RFU we are required to learn English. This is what I do. I take video lessons on Skype.

- Surely, with the advent of Viktor Kashshai, language learning issues came to the fore?

- Of course. At the training camps in February, specialists came to us and tested to find out our level of language proficiency. There were two tasks: spoken and written. Many have a basic level. Those who have been working in Europe for a long time are doing better. Of course, we can all explain ourselves, but not everyone speaks English fluently. Kashshai is not happy with this, he wants the judges to own it freely.