"Relationships are built through sports — this is soft diplomacy"

The resumption of the Russian football season has once again escalated the discussion about the work of referees. Their decisions and interpretations are increasingly becoming the subject of controversy among experts, clubs and fans, as well as a reason to talk about possible changes in the refereeing system. In an interview with Izvestia and Sport-Express, Maxim Mitrofanov, General Secretary of the RFU, spoke about the problems faced by the Russian judicial corps and the steps that can be taken to improve the quality of their work. In addition, the functionary commented on the lack of FIFA's response to the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

— One of the main topics after the restart of the championship is refereeing. How do you rate it?

— There are controversial moments in all leagues. Yes, there were high—profile episodes - they were also evaluated by the head of our judging department. Feedback is given to the judges. Depending on [further] decisions or mistakes, appropriate work will be carried out.

There were also times when the referee made the right decision, and the assistant made a methodical mistake — he convinced the judge of the opposite. We are working on it. I understand that this issue will be even more intense at the end of the season.

— Have you discussed the work of the referees with the head of the Refereeing and Inspection Department, Milorad Majic?

— We had a conversation, we sorted out all the questions. It is important that there are as few errors as possible. And the decisions made by the judges were clearly explained. Majic understands the situation and controls it.

— Alexander Alaev, President of the RPL, spoke about the desire to hold a conversation with the RFU on improving the operation of the offside lines. What do you think about it?

— Alexander Alaev and I not only work together, but also regularly communicate on various topics. We have an understanding of what is going on.

Five - minus: how did the clubs from the top 5 of the RPL stumble?

Krasnodar, Zenit, Lokomotiv, CSKA and Baltika remained without victories in the championship.

What are lines? The judges don't draw them by hand. And they use an offside detection system, which is a program licensed by FIFA. There are not many of them. The software takes into account each specific camera from which the moment is recorded, knows the location of the camera, what is the distance from each point of the field. The VAR determines the extreme points from the maximum convenient angle available from certain cameras; the image of the field from them is specially calibrated. And then the software draws this line. It should be noted that the program takes into account not only the optical distortions of camera lenses, but even the curvature of the field (the central part is always higher than the peripheral one for more efficient drainage. The companies that supply the program may have different names, but in fact it is one technology that is licensed by FIFA.

A system of additional video cameras, which are used in other championships, is needed to capture a comfortable position with the least error. This allows the fans to clearly understand what happened. Pavel Kamantsev (Chairman of the RFU Refereeing Committee. — Ed.) and said that if we had such a system, the fans would have more opportunities to trust the technology.

We have a constructive dialogue with RPL. We understand what needs to be done. If financial costs need to be incurred, we will determine how this will happen together with the league. Together with Alexander Alaev, we instructed our colleagues to speed up the work. I think all the technical requirements will be known to the clubs in the first half of March.

— Another important and global issue is the conflict in the Middle East, to which FIFA has not responded in any way. Doesn't that surprise you?

— Our Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev answered this question best of all. He supported the IOC's statement, saying that the ice has moved and sport is a bridge in building constructive relations between the countries. We hope that the IOC, FIFA, UEFA and the national federations will pay attention to this statement and draw the right conclusions.

— So the situation with the absence of the US suspension can be a plus for Russia?

— We consider our suspension illegal — the basic principles of the FIFA and UEFA organizations have been violated. There are rules according to which football is outside politics, and the state has no right to interfere in the affairs of a football organization. All of this is broken.

Through sport, relationships are built — this is soft diplomacy. We are not in favor of punishing any federation, but for the same principles. The Russian teams were suspended illegally and must be returned unconditionally, without any conditions.

— The new season of the Youth Football League started last week. Earlier, you said that it is partially funded, among other things, by the FIFA Legacy Foundation.

— Yes, that's right. Last year, at the RFU conference, colleagues from FIFA noted that this is the best practice among all existing football reserve training systems in the world. Our methodological developments are publicly available. Therefore, colleagues from FIFA and UEFA are actively studying them and recommending them for implementation in other countries. You know that there are similar projects from Kazakhstan that are inspired by the Youth Football League. Our project is not some kind of secret product, but, on the contrary, we are happy and open to cooperation.