MOSCOW, September 27 President of Yekaterinburg Ural Grigory Ivanov called the video assistant referee (VAR) system an evil for Russian football after the team’s defeat in the match of the ninth round of the Russian championship against Krasnodar.
The meeting in Krasnodar ended with a score of 2:0 in favor of the hosts. In the second half, referee Vitaly Meshkov disallowed a goal by Krasnodar footballer Kevin Lenini after the linesman signaled for offside, but after the intervention of the referees in charge of VAR, the decision was changed.
"In general, VAR should not have interfered in this episode! A young boy sits somewhere, whom no one knows or sees, and interferes! For what? There was a clear offside. Although some experts talk about Emmerson’s heel: they say it gave him an advantage over Kadi. Aren't you funny? The referee cancels the goal, but there is an incomprehensible intervention from the assistant, and the decision is changed. It turns out that today VAR is evil for our football! — the club website quotes Ivanov as saying.
The president of Ural also said that the club, regarding the episodes of the match with Krasnodar, appealed to the expert refereeing commission under the president of the Russian Football Union (ESK RFU). According to Ivanov, the referees began to make many mistakes, and the head of the RFU refereeing department, Milorad Mazhich, does not take any measures.
Russian Premier League (RPL)September 24, 2023 • starts at 19:00Finished
KrasnodarRussia2 : 0
UralRussia
54' • Egor Filipenko (A)73' • Kevin Lenini
«»Look here : now the round has passed, the ESC will meet only on Friday, the verdict will be in a week, when no one will care about it, because there are new matches ahead. And I repeat once again: if the referee made a mistake, punish him! If the player makes a mistake, he can be imprisoned bench. Why is it wrong with the referees? Mazhich says to the referees: I will be for you, and the clubs must decide their own issues. But this is fundamentally wrong: if the referee made a mistake, he must be punished. The referees must not interfere. The best referee is the one that is not visible on the field,” the functionary added.
After nine rounds, Ural is in eighth place in the Russian Premier League (RPL) standings with 14 points.