The Sunday program of the second round of the Russian Premier League ended first in the season of refereeing scandal. In the match «Akhmat» — CSKA (2:3) five penalties were awarded and realized. In addition, two Grozny players and one army team member were shown red cards.
Russian Premier League (RPL)July 30, 2023 • Starts at 20:00Finished
CSKARussia
27' • Mohamed Conate (M)45' • Mohamed Conate (M)
13' • Fedor Chalov (M)45' • Fedor Chalov (M)79' • Fedor Chalov (P)
See all goals
It is noteworthy that 50-year-old Vladislav Bezborodov, whom the Russian Football Union (RFU) named the best referee of the 2022/23 season in the country in early July, was at the epicenter of the scandal. His whistling career spans 22 years — he has been working in the top division of Russian football since 2007, and since 2009 he has been a FIFA category referee.
Already in the 12th minute, Bezborodov removed Akhmat defender Marat Bystrov for interrupting the flight of the ball on target in his goalkeeper's area. Replays of this moment do not give 100% certainty that the player in this episode has played a hand. This was followed by the first of five penalties, which was converted by CSKA forward Fedor Chalov. At the 27th minute, the score became equal — Mohamed Konate was accurate from the 11-meter mark. In the episode preceding the penalty, the guests' midfielder Konstantin Kuchaev broke the rules by knocking down the hosts' midfielder Ivan Oleinikov in his penalty area. The third penalty in the game also raises no questions — CSKA forward Anton Zabolotny played ahead of the curve and put himself under the blow of Akhmat captain Andrey Semenov. Chalov realized the shot from the spot again.
The most resonant was the fourth penalty in the match. The first attempt ended with a save by Igor Akinfeev, but Bezborodov decided to kill the 11-meter one. Before the second strike, the referee canceled a yellow card for CSKA defender Milan Gajic and removed the Serb from the field. This happened after watching VAR in the tenth minute compensated for the second half. Such use of VAR is a violation of the protocol for using this technology. The video assistant referee could not call the referee to the monitor, since Bezborodov had already given a signal to continue the match and this moment did not refer to the erroneous identification of the player who violated the rules, and also it was not about the aggressive or extremely offensive behavior of Gayich. Konate scored again from the point.
Lawlessness or communication problems? Already during the second half, CSKA communications director Kirill Breido spoke about the work of Bezborodov in his Telegram channel. “I can’t remember a greater lawlessness than the one that the Bezborodov brigade is doing now, rewriting the football rules and VAR protocol on the go. Catastrophe. Murder. Lawlessness,” he wrote. After that, he said that the club would apply to the expert-judging commission under the President of the RFU (ESC RFU) following the results of the match in Grozny.
After the break, the main arbiter of the meeting was in the spotlight twice more — first, after a hint from VAR, he appointed the fifth penalty in the match, which was again converted by Chalov, who scored a hat-trick. Already in stoppage time for the second half, with the score 3:2 in favor of CSKA, the second yellow card was received by the captain of Akhmat Semenov.
Sunday's match in Grozny threw in a couple of interesting statistics. Firstly, the game «Akhmat» — CSKA became a record for the number of penalties awarded in the history of the RPL, created in 2001. In the championships of Russia there was only one case when five 11-meter throws were appointed in one game — this happened in 1999 in the match «Rotor» — «Chernomorets» (5:2), which was served by Valentin Ivanov. Secondly, for only the second time in the history of the RPL, a hat-trick from a penalty kick was issued. In 2017, in the match «Anji» — «Tom» (3:3), all three goals from the penalty spot were scored by the player of the home team Arsen Khubulov. Vladislav Bezborodov was the main arbiter at that game.
The Communications Service of the RFU commented on the scandalous refereeing in Grozny even before the final whistle. «In Grozny, during the match, there are problems with communication between the referees in the field and the VAR center in Moscow. All resonant episodes of the match will be carefully studied and evaluated by the refereeing department and the ESC,» the union said. wait for yourself. Given the resonance, it cannot be ruled out that the game in Grozny was the last in the career of the recently officially best referee in the country.