Head coach of FC "Pari NN" suspended for two matches for threatening the referee

Head coach of soccer club Pari Nizhny Novgorod Viktor Goncharenko is disqualified for two matches for threatening the chief referee after the match of the 17th round of the Russian Premier League (RPL) against Rostov. This was announced on December 5 by the head of the Control and Disciplinary Committee of the Russian Football Union (CDC RFU) Artur Grigoryants.

According to the referees' reports, Goncharenko was in the under-tribune room when he began to make claims about the referees' treatment of the players in an insulting manner.

"Goncharenko said the following phrase to assistant referee [Andrei] Bolotenkov: 'You communicate with players with such boorish faces'." After that, head referee Yan Bobrovsky warned the coach. Then Goncharenko shouted in the back to the chief referee: 'Yan, you don't have long left,'" Sport-Express quoted Grigoryants as saying.

Goncharenko himself said that he did not threaten anyone with his words. In addition to the disqualification, the coach will also have to pay a fine of Br250 thousand.

On November 30, Pari NN lost to Rostov in an away match with a score of 0:4. The RPL protocol reports that Goncharenko defiantly expressed disagreement with the decisions of the refereeing team and threatened the chief referee of the match Yan Bobrovsky.

The specialist took charge of the Nizhny Novgorod club in October 2024. Before that, he was recognized 11 times as the best coach of Belarus. Since 2013, Goncharenko worked in Russia and headed such clubs as Kuban, Ufa, Krasnodar and CSKA.