“Live people work for monitors”: Nikolaev on the causes of VAR errors, the lack of referees in the RPL and refereeing recommendations

- In the last rounds of the RPL, the VAR system unexpectedly came to the fore.

The Rostov-Lokomotiv match was interrupted a huge number of times.

Was there a violation of the rules in this case?

- The protocol of the video assistance system for the arbitrators does not specify the period of time that is given for making a decision.

The main thing is that it be true.

However, what happened in this match, of course, few people could like: 18 minutes to watch controversial episodes is unacceptable for VAR.

It is too long.

The 24th round showed us what shortcomings exist in this area.

- Why did this happen?

The judge who reviewed the episodes was not ready to make decisions?

The problem is a little deeper.

VAR is designed to help in difficult situations: in controversial moments or when the referee did not see the episode.

And the last two rounds showed everyone the reverse side of the medal: the chief judges made the right decisions, and the referee at the monitor changed them to the opposite ones.

This is also due to the fact that after the departure of Leonid Kaloshin in June 2021, there is no leader in training video referees in Russia who would be trained to work in RPL matches.

Perhaps there are some technical nuances with computers, angles, picture quality.

This cannot be ignored.

But at the same time, all of the above should not be an excuse for fans and players who just waited 18 minutes for the resumption of the game.

Moreover, there were repetitions, which, in my opinion, made it possible to make the right decisions much faster.

- It turns out that after the departure of Kaloshin, for almost a year now, training to work at the monitor has not been conducted?

- Yes.

There is a person who organizes the process, but he does not have the authority to engage in training, he can only act as a manager.

And to conduct seminars, analyze mistakes ... there is still no such specialist.

There should be regular training, continuous improvement of the VAR system.

Then there will be no such problem as watching the episode for a long time.

There is a certain specificity of the work of a video arbitrator: in a short period of time, a person from a multitude of repetitions on different monitors must choose exactly the angle that will help make the right decision in a difficult game situation.

- Long thoughts can also be explained by the fact that Yan Bobrovsky played only the second match in the RPL.

Could he just be afraid of making a mistake, given the recent sanctions of the RFU Referee Committee, which suspended several referees from work until the end of the season?

— I don't think there was fear, but there was certainly pre-match excitement.

In addition, the second meeting in the RPL turned out to be very eventful, and VAR pretty much sweated this time.

Moreover, a very young Ivan Sidenkov, who does not have much experience in this role, also acted as a video referee.

Plus, he played the second game on the tour, having worked at the monitor the day before in the Khimki-CSKA match.

Therefore, a complex of reasons immediately led to the fact that the interaction between the chief arbiter and VAR turned out to be not so smooth in terms of decision-making time.

- Otherwise, how do you evaluate the work of the chief arbiter?

- I would not say that some of his mistakes affected the result of the match.

One of the key decisions of the referee in this game was the removal of Nair Tiknizyan for rough play.

It is very important that in this episode the referee himself made the decision, and it was absolutely correct.

- Why do you think the number of referee errors increased in the last rounds, which became key and influenced the outcome of the matches?

- The one who does nothing is not mistaken, although many believe that in the era of VAR there should not be wrong decisions of the arbitrator, since there is always the opportunity to review the episode.

However, as we have seen, real people work at the monitors, and they can also make mistakes.

As a result, VAR came to the fore.

Many even began to say that in Russia the system does not help, but only hinders the referee.

There have been proposals to abandon the use of VAR in RPL.

Although I don't think it will come to that.

But when the referee is in an excellent position on the field, makes the right decision, and then the system intervenes and, as in the Krasnodar-Dynamo game, changes it to an erroneous one, this is already an outrageous case!

As a result, a penalty was awarded, which was not even close there.

- Where in that episode did VAR see a violation that deserved a penalty kick?

- A lot of people have asked about it.

But I don't have an answer to this question.

If something happens on the field, I usually try to put myself in the place of the chief referee.

In most cases, I see and understand why the judge acted one way or another.

However, in this match, I cannot explain why the correct decision of the chief referee was changed.

Yes, there was a touch of the hand of the defender and Smolov in the penalty area, but this was not a violation of the rules.

The delay for the jersey, considered a foul, began already outside the penalty area.

How the video referee interpreted this episode is a mystery to me.

- How effective is it to remove referees who make mistakes until the end of the season?

It is difficult for me to discuss this issue.

Here, the wrong decisions are indeed quite resonant ...

- It's not even about the reasons, because now the RPL has lost three main referees at once until the end of the season.

And their number is limited, so you have to pull up the judges from the FNL.

Will there be more matches like Rostov - Lokomotiv?

- Indeed, we do not have such a big competition.

There are no 30 people to choose from.

Therefore, in the near future we will see something that we have only recently left, when the referee works on several matches in one round as a referee and in the VAR center.

- More than one meeting - a lot?

Yes, it's a big load.

And perhaps Sidenkov, who spent two matches at the monitor, this just prevented him from making decisions quickly in Rostov.

The guys say that it is easier to judge in the field than to work with video.

Therefore, of course, there is an emotional, psychological component.

This is an objective factor that must be taken into account.

A big load will now fall on FIFA referees, who are able to cope with any game.

- The referees also have to cope with another psychological problem: they are suspended from international matches.

Is it a lot of pressure?

“This is a complex problem for everyone.

Both for the national team, which was undeservedly deprived of the opportunity to compete for a ticket to the World Cup in the play-offs, and for the leading clubs that have earned the right to play in European competition, and at the moment everything is closed for us.

Also for our referees.

Take the same Karasev.

He deserves to work at the World Championships, he has come a long way for this, a tremendous amount of work has been done.

Sergey has reached the peak of his career in terms of age and experience, but now he cannot realize his ambitions in Qatar.

But for athletes, of course, what is happening is even more painful.

I would like to believe that peace will come soon and our judges will be able to work at the international level.

- Now foreign specialists have left the refereeing department of the RFU.

Can this also be associated with an increase in the number of errors in RPL matches?

We are really in a transitional period right now.

The judiciary after the break will be headed by a compatriot.

So far, Pavel Kamantsev has been appointed acting, but in fact Nikolai Ivanov and Anton Averyanov will work with the RPL referees.

They have already held a two-day gathering, which turned out to be quite fruitful.

According to the guys themselves, it turned out to be even more intense than in the winter in Turkey with the previous leader.

Now it’s not even the VAR protocol that comes to the fore, but the adoption of the right decisions.

If earlier they wanted to minimize video views, now they are allowed to resort to them a little more often, but the main thing is to avoid mistakes.

However, today we see that the recommendation was given, but until the end the judges were not quite ready for this.

I think that the transition period will end and VAR will work in a completely different way, better and faster.

— Did you notice changes in the work of Russian arbitrators during the period when they were led by foreigners?

- To evaluate, you need to see how everything is built inside the relevant department.

On the part of a significant improvement in the quality of the work of arbitrators did not happen.

But there are also objective reasons why this happened: it is not so easy for a foreign specialist to establish interaction in a foreign country, where there is its own mentality, its own traditions.

Over the past five years, many leaders have changed, and this definitely did not go to the benefit in terms of the development of refereeing.

Now the period has come, which in the near future should improve the situation.

I would like to wish the guys emotionally, psychologically, and physically, after all, we have a small clip, to cope with everything and finish the season at the proper level, so that after the referee's decision there are no questions that no one has an answer to.