Despite the fact that the Russian team did not make it to Germany for the World Cup, it was our compatriot who was at the epicenter of the scandal on the World Cup so far. Moskvich Valentin Ivanov, who judged the 1/8 final match between the teams of Portugal and the Netherlands, showed 16 yellow cards to his participants, and removed four more players from the field. Ivanov became the most strict referee of the world championships: the history of these tournaments did not know so many warnings and deletions. The day after the scandalous game, the referee was contacted by Izvestia correspondent Chermen Dzgoev .
Izvestia : Was this the most difficult match of your career?
Valentin Ivanov : It is difficult to evaluate. The matches are different: sometimes football players fall in the penalty area 20 times per match, and such games also take a lot of energy. But, probably, from the point of view of rudeness, yes, the meeting was the most difficult.
Izvestia : Do you agree with the claims?
Ivanov : So, in general terms, I would not want to answer this question. Let’s say on specific points: what exactly are your complaints?
Izvestia : I don’t have complaints - I just watched this game with pleasure ... Both teams express dissatisfaction, moreover in a generalized form: they say that you released the match out of control, that did not correspond to its level .. .
Ivanov : I don’t know ... What I saw, how I understood these episodes, was what I judged.
Izvestia : Maybe now, after some time, it seems to you that some episodes could be evaluated differently? Already watched the video?
Ivanov : The fact of the matter is that I have not had time yet.
Izvestia : But do you have an explanation why serious, cool players suddenly began to behave as if they had broken the chain?
Ivanov : Aggression is connected with the fact that this is a relegation match. Someone is going home, someone is staying ... Although this is actually something they need to ask what happened.
Izvestia : Was there such a player on the field who started, let’s say, those around him, whose negative energy then began to spread to the rest?
Ivanov : I cannot single out one thing in this sense. And in general, it is not necessary that such a footballer be. It is difficult to explain why the game suddenly for no reason becomes rough. But it happens. And, as a rule, in principle matches.
Izvestia : Someone from the Dutch said after the match that you should have removed Figo and not show him the yellow card. What do you think?
Ivanov : I just didn’t see this episode because it happened behind me. I was told by assistants that Figo was pushed by a Dutchman and that there was a yellow card. I showed yellow.
Izvestia : Did you give the second warning to Deco for picking up the ball?
Ivanov : Of course. He was penalized in favor of the Dutch, and Deco picked up the ball and did not give it away. In such cases, I must issue a warning. And Deco knew it well. And he also knew that he already had one warning.
Izvestia : Has anyone from FIFA already talked with you about working on this match?
Ivanov : Not yet.
Izvestia : Do you think they will give you another game at the World Cup?
Ivanov : I don’t know anything about this. I don’t know yet ...
Valentin Ivanov set to red
Sunday night ended the most scandalous match of the current World Cup. The meeting of the 1/8 finals of Portugal - Holland will surely go down in history, and by no means because of the victory of the Portuguese. This game broke all records in the number of warnings issued: Russian referee Valentin Ivanov took out a yellow card a total of 16 times. For four players - Coshtinho and Deco from Portugal and Bulahruz with van Bronkhorst from Holland, there were two “mustard plasters”, so the teams finished the match eight times.
The surname of Ivanov after the game was declined by both teams. Dutch head coach Marco van Basten said: “It’s a shame that referees can make such decisions in such important matches. It’s a pity that no one played football in the second half. Every minute the match was interrupted by a referee’s whistle and we weren’t able to either show. " The Portuguese mentor Luis Felipe Scolari echoed him: “Some decisions were simply contradictory. Especially the second yellow card to Deco.”
A few days ago, the group stage match Australia - Croatia was served by Englishman Graham Paul. He warned the same player three times before removing him; he incorrectly appointed a penalty and, on the contrary, in those cases where it was necessary to appoint a penalty, he did not. After such monstrous mistakes, was it any wonder that a bucket of slops was poured on the head of the referee?
With Ivanov, everything is different. The Russian referee is accused of losing the match out of control. Which was inconsistent. How to release, what is inconsistent? Neither van Basten nor Scolari explain this. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who stated in an interview with Portuguese television that the level of the referee did not match the level of the match, does not say this either. “He can safely show the yellow card to himself,” the chief football official praised Ivanov’s work. To Paul, by the way, he spoke out more correctly: "The arbiter is also a living person."
“I think that if Ivanov needs to be presented with a yellow card, then many other judges at this championship should be shown a red one,” Vitaly Mutko, president of the Russian Football Union, told Izvestia. “You need to know the inner world of the organization headed by Blatter to understand the reason for such statements "This is politics: you need to say something to the Portuguese, he said. These statements will have no fatal consequences for Ivanov."
One consequence, however, can already be said with a great deal of certainty: for Valentin Ivanov, the world championship is over. It's a pity. Because he became a victim of an ordinary stereotype. It is generally accepted that if players run wild on the field and begin to kick each other in the legs as soon as possible, it is only because the judge made a mistake in some episode and added nervousness. It does not occur to anyone to think that if the players react to a mistake in this way, then it is they who are doing wrong, and not the referee. And it is strange for him to answer for other people's sins. The case of Ivanov is doubly strange. After all, no one can really explain what exactly his mistake was.