Famous football referee Sergei Khusainov told VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info about the "kitchen" of football refereeing in the Russian championship. Journalist Alexey Matveyev spoke with him
BY THE "FRIEND-FOE" PRINCIPLE
- It’s not comme il faut, as they say, if you evaluate the level of refereeing in the Russian championship, — says international referee, Muscovite Sergei Khusainov. — The selection of referees for matches is a very important moment. The level of endurance, psychological readiness, basic knowledge of the rules of the game — these are the "passing points" for a qualified referee. And not everyone keeps up the standard, but "works" at matches, imagine. This is the "level", if we talk in general. Yes, in Russia referees are selected based on the principle of "friend or foe", a long-established practice. The established system of relations implies that you live in it, I repeat, based on the principle of "friend or foe". That is, a person is selected for refereeing not so much by professional qualities as by the ability to "adapt", the desire to please certain people, often of a football-related nature. If you have such qualities, the path to big refereeing is open...
This manner implies that you can easily step over the concepts of honor and dignity, ready to carry out a "task" — to "bury" this or that team with dishonest decisions during a specific match. Honesty and integrity for such a disposition of people are, in fact, "empty words". Are the realities too harsh for Russian football? But the situation is as described.
- That is, referees, as I understand it, are selected to referee matches based on the principle of "friend or foe"? You have to be a notoriously dishonest, principled person to take a whistle and referee football matches. Otherwise — a "barrier"?
- Exactly. There are types among football referees who are ready to whistle dishonestly, in favor of one of the teams, a common practice in our country. Such, with your permission, "referees", carry out tasks of dubious types, "spic and span" mafiosi. They scurry around big football here and there, not only big football, by the way. Around specific teams, for example, the first, second leagues. Yes, yes, there is no need to be surprised — harsh realities.
- Nothing can be done here, no counteraction to the football "bugs"?
- What can you do here?! Go to the police, write a statement? Well, you can end up in a gutter with a slit throat ... Morals are something else, nothing has changed since the cruel times of the 90s. At one time, some "thugs" tried to "educate" me by hitting me with huge bats; they didn’t like my refereeing style, you see. I barely escaped with my life before I managed to run into the entrance of my building. Wild morals, yes, that’s the reality to this day. On the day of the attack, I thanked the Almighty: thank you, Lord, for keeping me alive...
But I’ll get back to the issues of "clean" refereeing, which you can’t find in the Russian championship with fire during the day. When, for example, the leaders of domestic refereeing begin to resolve non-sporting issues, it’s the worst thing ever. Even ordinary, rank-and-file football fans can easily distinguish normal refereeing from a surrogate. And they will be quite rightly indignant: what have you foisted on us here?! Instead of a normal, fair game, some kind of impassable "swamp"!
Yes, independent football referees are of no benefit to anyone in the sports environment! They are like a bone in the throat of all sorts of politicians who patronize their favorite teams, other football swindlers. Honest people with whistles are not needed, first of all, by scoundrels-businessmen. They are ready to invest dirty money in the success of their team. And to achieve it at any cost. Fame, prestige, and the like. Through dirty money, I repeat.
The main motto to this day in domestic refereeing is "friend or foe". At all levels of domestic football. What do I mean, first of all? A referee with independent thinking and equally reasonable, independent actions on the football field is not needed by almost anyone. Perhaps only numerous spectators, fans need him, so as not to "spit" from stupid, sometimes biased refereeing. In the overwhelming majority of football matches, they referee according to the principle I mentioned "friend or foe". Without a twinge of conscience. What conscience is there?! Not even close. FOREIGNERS WILL SAVE THE RUSSIAN CHAMPIONSHIP?
In general, Russian football officials have come up with a trick that deserves attention! They invited foreign referees to us, and not only to judge matches, but also to the governing structures. And what, have they relieved themselves of a considerable share of responsibility, saying, let the foreigners flounder in our shit, rake it up.
What good are our officials! As if they dumped a significant portion of responsibility on the "poor" foreigners, who are almost unfamiliar with our harsh realities. It is convenient, after all, to blame foreign colleagues for the relatively weak refereeing, right? And this — partly helpless work of foreigners at matches of the Russian Premier League — has also happened.
By the way, the current leaders of Russian refereeing did not select the current referees, they, imagine, did not even prepare them for the pre upcoming difficult battles. The result will almost certainly be disastrous closer to the end of the season, and even now, the interim, to put it mildly, is not impressive. After all, the selection principle, which I have already mentioned in sufficient detail, is initially flawed, not conducive to progress in refereeing. That’s how things are...
A SPIT IN FOOTBALL. THE CASE OF THE "WELDERS"
Well, here is the recent match "Spartak" — "Rubin" in Moscow. The referee correctly reacted to the episode in which the ball first hits the back of one of the Rubin players, then touches the hand of his partner, but is this a penalty? Of course not! Initially, the referee correctly assessed the moment as a game, not nearly deserving a penalty. The game continued. But then, as I call them, "welders" from the notorious Var intervened. Negotiations, discussions began immediately, other near-sports issues intervened. Almost out of nowhere, they came up with a "conflict of interest". A simple game moment that does not require detailed investigation. And all this resulted in a penalty being awarded to the Kazan team, which, objectively speaking, was not even close. My God, FIFA referee, why were you awarded such a high title?!
The Orenburg — Zenit match, referee Sergei Ivanov. In the 58th minute, Zenit player Nino, trying to take the ball away from the opponent, hits him in the leg, the moment is in the penalty area of the St. Petersburg team. Penalty? No. The referee seemed to "not notice" the obvious violation. What is this — bias, deskilling? It was necessary to sort it out, the officials are in no hurry to do this, but they simply "buried" the scandalous moment, and there are many such examples.
One of the central matches of Zenit — Spartak, refereed by Vitaly Meshkov. It is important for the referee to be equally neutral, not to spoil the impression of a bright game with his unauthorized, hasty decisions. Not to interfere in the game with his sometimes "strange" "tricks", which is very important. In short, to be on top of the situation.
Alas, Meshkov failed to maintain neutrality. His, to put it mildly, illogical, often ill-considered decisions only irritated the footballers themselves, their numerous fans. A scandal, and nothing more!
To be continued...