Photos - Yakov Andreev / Kommersant
AGREE , this rarely happens: the football season is not even going to start to end, and the judge, whose work in 2006 will be remembered for longer and brighter than all others, has already been determined. And this despite the fact that one person worked for a single match in mid-July and more this year obviously will not appear on the field. Accused after the now famous game “Tom” - “Spartak” of all mortal sins, Pavel Kulalaev now judges only the matches of the championships of the Volgograd region and his native city of Volzhsky and awaits the end of the verification carried out by the Economic Crimes Department (for those who do not know, the wrestling department with economic crimes).
How does it feel to feel like a man covered in such a cap?
Yes, I somehow do not feel any direct pressure. Well, telephone conversations may be bugged - but hardly anyone can detect the corpus delicti in them. And so I mostly find out from the newspapers how the investigation is going on in my case. I read that Levnikov was being called somewhere, someone else ... Nobody has contacted me yet.
But are there any versions around you?
After the bribery option seemed to be quiet, a version of the sweepstakes appeared: as if I had set the desired result myself, and then ensured it. After all, Shavlo promised to publicly prove that “the arbiter took the money” - all that remains is to find out where.
By the way - how much was your income from traveling to the city of Tomsk?
Something about 37 thousand rubles. After all, they put me in a “deuce” - and so the fee came out half as much. Of the 84 thousand (minus taxes) that a judge pays in the field in the Premier League ...
Enormous (even in half) money by the standards of the city of Volzhsky - as a person who lived there for three very busy days, I can attest to this responsibly. It is a pity only if they turn out to be the last refereeing earned by Pavel - somehow he doesn’t look like a personal, not through a screen, acquaintance with a double. It’s impossible a simple honest guy who grew up without a father (“My mother taught me how. Once at school they said that I would pay 10 rubles for meals for single-parent families. I came, told her, and she answered me like this: she’d better get another job but so that I forget about it ”).
Actually, the word “money” is so often attached to the word “judge”, and not the 84 thousand that go through the cash register of the RFU, which over time should have developed natural immunity ...
But only when you are not declared corrupt throughout the country. And so - of course, if you went up a little somewhere, and even more so - to the Premier League - it means that you brought someone. More than once, we discussed this topic with fellow peers. We can only prove our honesty by the opposite method: well, and to whom can we give, if we have nothing to give to us?
As one of my beloved judiciary superiors once said: “Well, what can these young people surprise me with except good refereeing?”
That's right - you judge in the hope that you will someday be noticed. I worked for six years in the second league, I wanted to drop already, since no movement was visible upstairs. After all, we have everything on the steps: first, the College of Judges of the Volgograd Region should recommend you, then - Chernozemye ... And already at this stage you can finish, because in Voronezh or Tambov the guys also know how to judge - just someone is successful in I noticed the season of the game, but someone or a reputable inspector did not come across, or the game did not work out.
But why be sure to end - how many people have been judging this second league for decades!
If you want the truth, it’s sad that you’ll judge the second league all your life. The factor of their field is too strong there. The hosts expect that the judges will help them, the guests are ready for this, and then they will also accept them ... In general, those healthy trends that touched the top divisions have not yet reached it.
So as you personally noticed?
A clean case and a bit of professional arrogance. I was a reserve referee, like a local referee, at the match of the Premier League “Rotor” - “Uralan”. Valentin Ivanov was supposed to judge, but because of the fog he could not fly. They began to look for someone closer, they phoned Yegorov in Nizhny, but there was no direct flight there, and the rest did not have time. And then Valery Pavlovich Butenko, a respected inspector, says that there are two ways out: either he picks up the whistle and falls into the Guinness Book, or one of us has to work. Who is ready? I volunteered immediately - I realized that here he is, my chance, and decided to take a chance.
Was the match important?
The fact of the matter is that there isn’t - the penultimate round, both teams no longer stood on the relegation - in such games, both football and refereeing are a pleasure. Well, I bombed as I can, it turned out without gross errors. Valery Pavlovich (and a man, just in case, judged the World Cup) liked it - it turns out that there are young and not untalented people in the province. And then I got a call to the pre-season training camp in Sochi.
Is there something lucky again?
Just not. We were getting ready for the game, we got on the bus, we were about to start, and suddenly Levnikov entered it: “Well, let's get this ready-made judge for the Premier League here!” Let's see what he can do there! ”After such words, everything went down - if, I think, Levnikov’s mood personally makes sure that I don’t know anything ... And the game somehow didn’t work right away, and the players lifted me up ... After the game, Nikolai Vladislavovich understood what he told me, and I decided that I had missed a chance, which now may no longer be. Never. That year - the 2003rd - I remained in my second division. But the next one finally got to the number of assistants in the first - and this was a colossal breakthrough for me.
At the end of the same season I help on the line in the match for the Cup - Lokomotiv played with Chornomorets. The fact that Levnikov was in the game had no idea - and even if he knew, he would work with the same concentration. But in order for your work on the line to be appreciated, it is necessary that something happens next to you - and you can stand idle the whole game. But I was lucky that evening - all the controversial moments demanded my participation. And after the game, the Chef went into the referee’s room with the words: “Congratulations, the young man is an excellent job, we will recommend you as an assistant judge in the Premier League!” I was delighted and upset - now, I think, for the rest of my life I go to helpers ... But at a serious level, the line went well - it made its way to the main ones.
The disgraced judge Pavel Kulalaev for three days of our acquaintance twice judged the city-region accessible to him and once he wound up on his own “nine” (“When I started to judge the first league and then pay the main league there, I managed to save up pretty quickly”) in Volgograd on the department of information culture will be engaged in his dissertation, which - now there is time - hopes to defend by the end of the year. Theme: "Methodology for determining the position outside the game ..." - and then many professional terms.
Getting ready to move into theorists?
Yes, I would have practiced on a professional level, because only the taste felt it! When they called me and asked if I was ready as an arbiter from the reserve of the Premier League to fly to Tomsk, I answered without hesitation that yes, yes! It’s not in my nature to refuse such offers.
Did you know that another arbitrator was originally supposed to work in Tomsk?
I didn’t know about it. He was preparing as if they had appointed me from the very beginning. He said that I won’t let you down, and forward.
How did you meet in Tomsk?
Wonderful! I don’t even know what position in the club is occupied by the person who was engaged in my reception and placement. I asked what wishes. It was hot, I asked to swim in the Ob.
Well, Ob - it’s free for everyone ...
You may not believe it, but we - and indeed with no one there in Tomsk - have ever mentioned a game for the whole time. And who will discuss such things with an unfamiliar judge. This, by the way, was one of Levnikov’s main ideas - to pour fresh blood into the judiciary, giving way to people who haven’t managed to grow any relations with the teams.
In order not to provoke the notorious "sympathy"?
The Chef had his own vision of the topic: he said that today you are not stronger than those who are replacing, but you still have no negative experience either.
However, you only had one and a half hours to purchase it in excess.
Enough ...
How Pavlyuchenko was deleted, remember?
Now I will never forget. In the first half, I absolutely showed him yellow in the case. When they left for a break, he approached me in a relationship to find out: “Did you give me yellow because you knew that I had the fourth one?” I replied that I had because it was a violation that warranted a warning. We leave for the second half - he again to me: "No, you, so-and-so, stopudovo knew everything!"
And soon this moment, with its fall. From the position that I occupied, it seemed to me that there was a dive. For reliability, I managed to exchange agreed gestures with an assistant. He confirmed: a simulation. So I was even more confident in the decision.
And when did you realize that scandal cannot be avoided?
After the appointed penalty kick in the goal of Spartak. He certainly was - I would appoint him now. But two such decisions against one team, and even Spartak ...
What was your condition when Titov scored a goal in the end?
It got worse, to say the least. I had to cancel this goal on the assistant’s gesture - and this was the third decision against one team.
What happened after the game?
I went to the refereeing Spartak boss Zhilyaev, cursing very, also to put it mildly, we said, we’ll write in the protocol about prejudiced refereeing. I replied that you cannot write anything — the rules are the same — you can only dictate, and I will write it myself. “Spartak Football Club (Moscow) lodges a complaint about unqualified, biased refereeing of referee Kulalaev ...”
Have you somehow tried to make excuses?
I just said that I was trying to be objective: there was a penalty kick into the gates of “Tom” - I gave it, I was at the gate of “Spartak” - and I gave it too. But, watching the video, I immediately realized that with the removal of Pavlyuchenko, I was grossly mistaken. But such a resonance? Of course I did not expect. And when the hype on television that day and the next day in the newspapers began, I realized what I had done in my attitude — no, not Spartak — to Levnikov. It's like in a circus attraction - he put an apple on his head - shoot, I believe in you! I fired - and hit him in the forehead. And this scar on my heart will remain with me forever. And now let them say that it was already going on to Levnikov’s dismissal, I know for sure that he made his “contribution” to this matter - and no matter how decisive it is.
Did you communicate with his successor Zuev?
And even very encouraging - Sergei Vladimirovich said that he means me, and if only the investigation does not reveal anything, I will still have a chance. But who knows him now - when ...
Does the investigation have any foreseeable deadlines?
If I had been called at least once, I would certainly ask. But if a request arrives in the Duma, like Grishankova comes from a certain “ordinary citizen of Russia,” and an inspection is appointed, then she must publish her findings within a month — I read it in the newspaper. So, at the end of September I can hear something. In any case, this season is over for me ...
But the process may stretch out: if your “business” cannot be opened in hot pursuit, it usually continues “until the circumstances are completely clarified” - and you live with these phones for an indefinite time ...
Yes, this is actually not the worst thing - about a week after the match in Tomsk, my friends began to be interested in people from the authorities: who am I, what am I, what income do I live on. The guys, of course, told me everything at once - yes, I, in general, and so all in plain sight. There is practically nothing to hide.
By the way, about income - in between all these games, you have to be listed somewhere?
At the Volzhsky Pipe Plant a sports instructor. Only I am not listed there - I work. For 5 thousand a month.
Yes, without refereeing in your city, it seems you can’t get away ...
If I do not get rehabilitation, most likely I’ll leave. Friends in Moscow have been engaged in business for a long time: they say, give up your refereeing ...
And quit - you will not regret?
I’ll be - because even if I find myself in something else, I will hardly survive the adrenaline rushing out when I enter the field. And when you have worked hard in a quality game and the players and coaches shake your hand in recognition, you experience a feeling close to bliss. And all is well with you.
And so with an empty hand from the city and leaving ...
I will answer this way: now I judge funny games, but at this level, it happens that they put a thousandth of a bill: I earned you a beer. They are told that if you want to treat them with beer, then of course you can talk about a couple of bottles of football - but please take your money. And if we talk about other games, then in our business, after all, all the secret very quickly becomes apparent. And for this, you do not need such large-scale checks, as in my case, to appoint.
Somewhere I read Mutko’s statement: if Kulalaev is again allowed to judge, then he will have to start from the bottom. Ready?
It depends on which ones. If the boys are from the city championship, then I’m not ready - to return to the previous level, my judicial life is not enough. But to go through the second league again - I think I can. Although right after all these accusations I wanted to burn the uniform, and distribute whistles and cards to my young colleagues. But then he decided to fight.
P.S. When already from Moscow I agreed with Pavel on some of the nuances of this interview, Spartak was just playing with Bayern - it was impossible not to ask about impressions. “What did you want to hear from me - is that what they need ?! No, on the contrary, they certainly did not deserve four goals. This is - if objectively ... "
Sergey MIKULIK
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