"Sometimes you even need to drink a glass of cognac at night": what is known about the referees' dinner before the match "Ural" - "Tambov"

The Russian Premier League (RPL) went on a winter break, but the refereeing scandals did not subside even during this period.

First, Igor Panin was seen drinking alcoholic beverages with representatives of the Sochi football club after the team played the 18th round match with Spartak.

As a result, he was suspended from work for an indefinite period.

However, now the football community has a new episode for discussion.

On the evening of December 21, sports lawyer Anton Smirnov published a video on the "Honesty is not a vice" Telegram channel, which apparently captured a team of judges serving the game of the 19th round of the RPL "Tambov" - "Ural": chief arbiter Sergei Ivanov, his assistants Dmitry Bereznev, Alexey Shiryaev and Sergey Kulikov, as well as the match inspector Nikolai Ivanov.

According to the source, the company drank alcohol at the Balcon restaurant during a dinner in Saransk on December 17 at approximately 7:50 pm local time - less than a day before the match at which they were to work.  

According to Smirnov, almost immediately after the information was made public, the director of communications of the Russian Football Union, Kirill Melnikov, contacted him and promised that in the near future a check would be carried out regarding the time and place of filming the recording, and also stressed that it was necessary to find out whether video representatives of football clubs.

At the same time, the sports director of Tambov Pavel Khudyakov said that the club has no complaints against the referees, since they worked well against the Ural.

And this despite the fact that in the 60th minute the judges appointed a penalty kick against the hosts for a foul by Varazdat Aroyan on Aleksey Yevseyev, and in the end they refused to point to the point in the opposite penalty area for a similar violation by Aleksey Gerasimov on Aleksandr Karapetyan.

According to several articles of chapters 11 and 14 of the Disciplinary Code of the Arbitrator and the RFU inspector, persons involved in violations of moral and ethical standards, as well as being in a state of alcoholic intoxication at matches and events organized by the Union, and negatively affecting the image of the RFU or the judge himself, may be subject to both short-term disqualification and life-long suspension.

According to experts, it will make sense to talk about sanctions only when a full-fledged investigation of the episode is conducted.

So says the honorary president of the RFU Vyacheslav Koloskov.

“I cannot comment on what is not proven.

I am ready to talk about it when the facts are reliable.

The RFU said that they would investigate this situation, ”Koloskov said in an interview with RT.

The former head of the refereeing and inspection department of the Russian Football Union, Andrei Budogossky, in turn, explained that the referees do not have clear rules regarding drinking alcohol before the game.

He noted that in any case it is necessary to wait for the results of the investigation.

“We already have too many such fakes against judges.

I have not personally seen this video.

A person who works as an arbiter must understand himself that he needs to judge the next day, and he must be prepared.

Sometimes he may even need to drink a glass of cognac at night.

It all depends on the person.

Even in the West, during the European Cup matches in the evening before the game, there are meetings between representatives of the two teams, the referees.

Nothing will happen if someone drinks a glass of wine or champagne, ”the expert emphasized.

Budogossky also drew parallels between this situation and the story that happened to him while working in the department.

According to him, once he flew to Ussuriysk and decided to drink tea at Sheremetyevo airport, where he accidentally met the head of the FNL Igor Efremov and ex-judge Igor Egorov, who was then working as the head of one of the teams.

“There were about 8-10 of us in total.

We sat and drank tea.

And the next day, a photo from our tea party ended up on Vitaly Mutko's table: allegedly, Igor Egorov was solving questions about the successful performance of his team.

Although he flew to Vladivostok in general.

But Mutko had enough reason, and he threw out the picture, "- said Budogossky.