The Expert Referee Commission (ESC) under the President of the RFU supported all the main decisions of the referee Vladislav Bezborodov in the match of the first round of the WORLD of the Russian Premier League (RPL) between Akhmat and Spartak.

The ESC RFU meeting took place on Tuesday.

Open video

According to the commission, the referee correctly removed the Red-Whites’ defender Maciej Rybus from the field in the 41st minute.

– The decision of the ESC was motivated by the fact that in this game episode the referee issued the first warning to the player of the Spartak team Matei Rybus for disrespect for the game, expressed in holding the opponent with both hands without the opportunity to fight for the ball, and then issued him the second warning for unsportsmanlike behavior, so how this player, throwing the ball away after the game was stopped by the referee, became a participant in the conflict with the player of the Akhmat team Darko Todorovich, grabbing his throat with his hand. The commission unanimously supports the decision of the referee to remove Rybus from the field for two warnings he received in this game episode, which is absolutely consistent with the rules of the game and the instructions given to the referees by the Refereeing Department of the RFU and UEFA, the commission said in a statement.

The commission also supported the rest of Bezborodov’s decisions: to count the Grozny goal in stoppage time to the first half, not to assign a 11-meter kick to the Akhmat goal in the 50th and 77th minutes, and also not to remove the Grozny goalkeeper Georgi Shelia.

– The decision of the ESC was motivated by the fact that, in the opinion of all members of the commission, the contact between the player of the defending team “Akhmat” Anton Shvets and the attacking player of the team “Spartak” Quincy Promes, moving in the same direction, was natural and unpunished, since the actions of the defender did not come out beyond the bounds of acceptable martial arts.

Contact of the ball with the hand of the player of the defending team “Akhmat” Yuriy Zhuravlev in his own penalty area was not punishable, since, according to the rules of the game, the position of the hand, which is at rest or moving at close range, is considered natural, and contact is punishable only if the hand stretched out and spreading on the lawn or there is an intentional movement of the hand towards the ball. Due to the fact that in this game episode there are no specified criteria, the commission unanimously supports the decision of the referee to continue the game.

The actions of the goalkeeper of the Akhmat team, Georgi Shelia, who allowed Alexander Sobolev to kick, according to all members of the commission, are qualified as unsportsmanlike behavior, due to the lack of excessive force, punishable by a warning that was mistakenly not issued by the referee. The 11-meter kick was not correctly assigned due to a previous violation in the attacking phase of the game by Sobolev against Shelia, which the referee erroneously did not record, the statement says.