The referee is appointed referee in the scandalous CSKA match. Do you think Shafeev beat Karpin and Alaev?

The referee is appointed referee in the scandalous CSKA match. Do you think Shafeev beat Karpin and Alaev?

Maxim Pakhomov December 4, 2023, 14:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

Apparently, Rafael is the éminence grise of Russian football.

Many good things were said yesterday about the snow games. The reason, of course, is obvious: the match between CSKA and Rostov in Moscow was played under incredible snowfall. It is not the first time this season that RPL players have had terrible weather conditions: there was terrible fog in Samara in the match between Krylia and Orenburg, snowfall in Kaliningrad (Baltika – Spartak) and now CSKA – Rostov. But these matches have something in common, besides the unsuitable conditions for football. This is Judge Rafael Shafeev. And he worked well for all three.

In the match against Samara, according to Igor Fedotov, Shafeev mistakenly awarded only one penalty to the home team’s goal. After watching the replay, he canceled the decision and the RFU ESC subsequently confirmed the accuracy of this cancellation.

Referee Shafeev in the match “Alas” – “Orenburg”

Photo: FC Krylya Sovetov

In Kaliningrad there were no difficult decisions: Shafeev received the highest mark from Igor Fedotov: 8.5.

Referee Shafeev in the match “Baltika” – “Spartak”

Photo: FC Báltika

And in the match against CSKA, Shafeev did well: he even gave a penalty at the beginning of the game and, at the end, sent off the Rostov footballer (both decisions, according to our expert, were correct). And on the field, like in Kaliningrad, Shafeev came out in a short-sleeved T-shirt!

We will return to this statement from Karpin:

“What idiot made this decision?” Karpin’s words after the game against CSKA are a total rupture

“Apparently, the weather follows Shafeev,” Igor Fedotov commented on what happened, “it remains. In such games, you can automatically add 0.1 points to your score. It is very difficult in such conditions; The concentration must be extreme. The hardest thing is that you don’t see the line. If you fall behind in the episode, that’s it. Fitness comes first here, but running in that weather is difficult, the snow gets in your eyes. The main thing is not to invent anything: it is better not to assign something that exists than to assign something that does not exist.”

For Rafael, the match between CSKA and Rostov was already the ninth in this RPL season. According to the judges’ criteria, he is still young. His professional career as a footballer did not work out, so starting in the 2015/2016 season he began refereeing matches in the youth championship and, starting in 2021, in the FNL. Well, Shafeev has been working at RPL since September last year. And now, it seems, he has gained fame. And he did it wonderfully, and not “with the help” of a scandal.

Hole Riddle:

Why can’t they tolerate playing in the snow and why can’t they change their uniforms? Miracles of RPL rules

But not everyone is happy with Shafeev. Did you see Karpin’s question above? Well, about the “asshole who made the decision.” It turned out that Karpin attacked Shafeev with these words… Right at Shafeev. This is clear from the following quote from the head of the RPL, Alexander Alaev: “There were doubts, he had the possibility to postpone the game until tomorrow, the regulations allow it. If the referee stops the match, it can be played the next day. On Monday the weather is expected to be snow-free, but frozen, we have the technical capacity to hold matches tomorrow. But there are rules of the game, regulations, the referee makes a decision. Before the CSKA – Rostov match, referee Shafeev decided to play and the match took place. Here (at the Russian Railways Arena – Championship Note) the referee decided to delay the match. We discussed the situation with the head judge. He said the match was played in Kaliningrad under similar conditions and he sees no reason to postpone it. He was probably right, it is not for me to judge.”

It turns out that the 31-year-old referee, who has been working in the RPL for just over a year, is the éminence grise of our football? He forces Karpin to talk about disqualification, the RPL bosses to make excuses, the footballers to get wet in the snow and the stadium staff to run around the field with shovels during the match and clean the field. And that’s when the entire RPL president is in the stadium before the match, and Karpin calls Mitrofanov and asks to postpone the match (commentator Timur Zhuravel spoke about this). Can you imagine the magnitude of Shafeev’s personality? Alaev and Karpin ask not to play and the judge personally answers: “No, I decided to play, we will play.”

It is true that I would like to understand who was harmed by the postponement of the match. Suppose, for example, clubs (this is extra money) and bookmakers (in this or that weather, the result is more likely to be random). One can also remember the confrontation between the refereeing department and the RPL. It’s hard not to notice her. It all started with Alaev’s statement about Mazhich. And after that, the clubs and their representatives stopped being shy in their expressions towards the judges.

More details about this “war”:

And in the context of this “war”, accusations of a snow game fly… Against a simple judge. Who himself, without calls or conversations with the heads of our football (RPL, refereeing department or RFU), decided to play in the snow and set up all Russian football. Well, this is according to the official version.

You believe it?

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