Yesterday, on October 10th at the NTK named after V. Bannikov, a physical fitness test for referees of the UAF took place. All referees working on matches in the UPL (including teams U-19) and PFL successfully passed the test.

Next, the referees listened to new educational material from UEFA and FIFA, including about working with VAR, as well as conducted discussions of received data.

Photos by the press service of UAF

In addition, today the head of the Referees Committee of the UAF Luciano Luca and chief expert in refereeing Nicola Rizzoli conducted an analysis and discussion of numerous episodes from matches in the UPL and PFL during the first 10 rounds of the championship-2023/2024 via video conference for referees of the UAF. This included episodes involving handball, serious playing violations, clear goal scoring opportunities being denied, incidents outside play, etc.

Despite difficult times, the UAF is doing everything possible to ensure that referees continuously learn and improve their skills, including in interaction with VAR. In June-July training for new referees and assistant VARs took place in Kyiv, thanks to which certain rounds of the UPL can now be covered by video review technology at 100%.

Photos by the press service of UAF

Criticism often falls on referees of the UAF, but it is necessary to take into account real positive achievements. For example, this fact that recently the Referees Committee of UEFA entrusted a Ukrainian referee team with a central match in the Europa League "Olympiacos" - "Brighton", where the observer was the head of the Referees Committee of UEFA Roberto Rosetti himself. And according to his report, our referees received high marks.

Photos by the press service of UAF

This means that there is trust in our referees at the European level, and this is an opportunity to see their work not only in UEFA Champions League matches but also in other prestigious tournaments held under the auspices of UEFA and FIFA.