Former FIFA referee Igor Egorov believes that the level of Russian referees is no lower than referees from Belarus and Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, on the “Rules of the Game” program on the MATCH PRIME channel, the chairman of the RFU refereeing committee, Pavel Kamantsev, announced the signing of an agreement on cooperation in the field of refereeing with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. He also said that the RFU would soon conclude similar agreements with Belarus and Qatar.

“Maybe we’ll see something new.” The main thing is that our people go to Qatar and all other countries to exchange experiences. Maybe that’s a good thing.

— Shouldn’t we expect a protest from Russian judges? Still, they lose money.

“I don’t think it will come to protests.” The most important thing is that these people come not to all matches in a row, but to one or two in six months. I hope it will be so. I don’t know, of course, what Pavel Kamantsev is counting on.

— Is there some kind of trade union of judges in Russia that can protect their interests?

— Do we have such a committee?

– I did not find. Apparently not.

— Our judges, like Gerasim, agree to everything (laughs)

— So, you are looking with cautious optimism at the new initiative of the RFU?

— I will never be optimistic if someone thinks that there are better judges than Russian ones. I will never agree with this in my life. We have absolutely normal judges. If in Belarus and Saudi Arabia the referees are stronger than in Russia, then I am a Spanish pilot,” Egorov told RB Sport.

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