Refereeing Premier League: what will the introduction of a public rating of referees lead to?

The life of Russian football referees will never be the same again. At the end of March, at a meeting of the executive committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU), with the participation of the president of the organization, Alexander Dyukov, issues of improving the quality and transparency of refereeing were discussed.

In particular, one of the new directions described by Dyukov was to increase openness. For this purpose, it was decided to create a public rating of referees of the Russian Premier League (RPL). The innovation will be launched from the beginning of the 2025/26 season. About how judges were evaluated before, what will change now and whether the rating will affect the quality of judging — in the material of Izvestia.

How it was before

Based on the example of last season, it can be understood that the changes are significant. If now it will be a full—fledged rating, which will be updated approximately every six months and have certain evaluation criteria that determine the position of the referee and his chances of being appointed to as many matches of the second part of the championship and the first part of the new season, then previously the results were summed up only once - at the end of the season. Last year, this happened almost a month and a half after the end of the season, which took into account the work on matches not only of the championship, but also of the Cup of Russia.

On June 3, 2024, Pavel Kamantsev, chairman of the RFU Judicial Committee, told RIA Novosti that the judges' rating would be published before the end of the month, explaining this by changing the evaluation system. In particular, it was necessary to evaluate not only the number of matches worked out by the referees, but also to compare this with the importance and complexity of each match (for example, a Zenit-Spartak signboard or suddenly difficult situations arose in a less bright match, requiring the intervention of the chief referee and making an important decision that could it would affect the further course of the game).

As a result, the publication was delayed a bit. On the official website of the RFU, the news with the results of the referees' work in the season was published only on July 18, five days after the match for the Russian Super Cup between Zenit and Krasnodar.

The result was formed from the assessments of the match inspectors, taking into account the decisions of the RFU expert and refereeing commission. Sergey Karasev received the best average score for completed matches in the season. Kirill Levnikov took the second place, Pavel Kukuyan the third. In total, 10 arbitrators were included in the final rating. The top of the best assistants of the season was compiled according to the same principle (Andrey Obrazko became the first, Igor Demeshko became the second, Maxim Gavrilin became the third).

Although it was interesting, it seems that it is no longer as relevant and resonant as it could have been at the beginning or at least in the middle of June, when many people still have fresh memories of the past season. The results were announced, the awards were presented, and goodbye.

What will happen now

Now, the judges' rating will be published in open sources twice during the season. As Kamantsev informed the "Championship", the results will be summed up during the winter break and at the end of the RPL draw. RPL President Alexander Alaev also told Izvestia that the referee's rating will directly affect subsequent match appointments, as well as the bonus component.

One of the most obvious questions about the new system for evaluating the work of arbitrators was the frequency of publications. For example, why not summarize the results after each round? The head of the RFU explained.

— Let's imagine. The first round of the championship — the referee makes a mistake, gets suspended and misses four matches. Accordingly, there are five rounds, each time a rating is published. By the time he returns to work, this judge will be in last place in this ranking. When he is appointed to the match, the reaction of the clubs will be negative: "Why do you take the worst referee from the rating and appoint him to this match?" This is one example of why publishing a rating after each round is impractical. It also puts psychological pressure on the referees. Publishing the rating twice a season is enough for fans and clubs to know how referees are evaluated," Dyukov quotes the official website of the RFU.

Will the judges' rating be akin to an "alternative RPL standings"? At least it would be interesting. A kind of "Refereeing Premier League". And why not? And the two worst referees will be "demoted" to the First League level at the end of the season...

No kidding, but based on the words of the RFU president, it can be assumed that the new system for evaluating the work of judges in the format of a public rating should still have a positive impact on the quality of refereeing. And most importantly, it will really be more transparent (especially if it contains other data besides the simple ranking of the referee). After all, those arbitrators who value their reputation will want to avoid the already increased public pressure, as well as the risks of being out of work. And to do this, they will just have to work better, making the right and timely decisions during the matches. The main thing is that the evaluation criteria should be clear and understandable for everyone — then there will be fewer questions.