President Minaya: I don’t remember so many effective mistakes by referees, is it worth investing in such football?

The president Minaya Valery Peresolyak expressed dissatisfaction with the refereeing Ukrainian Premier Leagueas well as a system of punishing referees for scoring errors.

“There is no point in expressive actions! Although arbitration after each round pushes us to radical action! I don’t remember such a number of effective mistakes in the history of our championships. And Minaj suffers the most. The most annoying thing is that UPL clubs do not have any leverage to get quality refereeing. For example, we still don’t understand how referees are punished for gross mistakes.”

“We talked about a specific case when in the sixth round, referee Bondarenko made a gross mistake, the Committee admitted this and allegedly punished him. Luciano Luci began to claim that he banned the referee for a month and said that for a judge, working as a video assistant referee is a punishment! Because as the main player in the field, he receives a fee of 39 thousand hryvnia, and VAR – 6 thousand. What we have in fact: Rays cynically made us clowns. All those present at the meeting.”

“Firstly, Bondarenko really did not referee for a month, but during this time in September there were only two rounds in which he worked as VAR, and then again he was the main one in the field at the Krivbass-Rukh match. Well, secondly, we raised the documents, looked at the amount that the club pays specifically for the services of the VAR van personnel, and discovered the figure of 55 thousand hryvnia. That is, even if five people receive 6 thousand each, there is no way the total will be 55. Obviously, the video assistant receives a decent fee. We don’t go into anyone’s pocket, but it’s very low to lie at this level, Senor Luchi.”

“With each round, after the next “performance” of the judges, the question arises: who needs this kind of football? Fans – no, football players who “kill” on the field – no, club owners – no. Is it worth investing in it? We hope that club presidents will find some solution to these problems at collective meetings. Otherwise, our football will continue to slide into the abyss.”

In October, a meeting was held with the participation of representatives of all 16 clubs of the Ukrainian Premier League, the Committee of Referees, as well as the management of the UPL and UAF. UPL Director Evgeniy Dikiy said that the clubs wanted to make the work of the Referees Committee more open. The participants reached a preliminary agreement that video analysis of refereeing decisions in matches will be available on the official resources of the Committee.

The referee committee publicly commented on a number of controversial episodes in the current UPL season. In particular, the decisions of Yaroslav Kozyk (1st round), Dmitry Bondarenko (6th round), Alexander Shandor (7th round), Alexander Afanasyev (9th round) were recognized as erroneous.

Krivbass is leading the UPL with 23 points after 11 matches. Minaj takes last place with 4 points.