Today, on October 11, with the initiative of clubs from the Ukrainian Premier League, a discussion was held via video conference to address current issues involving league club leaders and the Referees Committee of the Football Association of Ukraine.

The meeting included presidents, vice-presidents, and general directors of UPL clubs, first vice-presidents of the FUA Oleg Protasov and Vadim Kostyuchenko, deputy secretary-general of the FUA Igor Gryshchenko, executive director of the UPL Yevgen Dikyi, head of the Referees Committee of the FUA Luciano Lucci, and chief referee expert of the FUA Nicola Rizzoli.

Photo by the press service of the FUA

The meeting consisted of two main parts. In the first part, Nicola Rizzoli demonstrated video recordings of controversial game episodes (linked to VAR) that occurred in matches during the first ten rounds of the 2023/2024 season, analyzed referees' decisions in these episodes and provided an overall assessment of the work of UPL referees for this period. Representatives of the clubs had the opportunity to ask questions and receive detailed explanations regarding various game situations and referee decisions from Nicola Rizzoli and Luciano Lucci.

Photo by the press service of the FUA

In the second part of the meeting, its participants focused on discussing opportunities to improve communication between the Referees Committee of the FUA and clubs. In particular, club representatives emphasized the need for regular meetings and discussions like this one. Representatives of the referees committee supported such a proposal. Also, the clubs supported the idea of conducting similar discussions in the future with an analysis of specific game episodes and an assessment of referee decisions online on the YouTube platform of the FUA.

Photo by the press service of the FUA

"“I am grateful to UPL clubs for initiating such a meeting. From the side of the FUA, we are fully prepared to support this dialogue and help in developing refereeing. This includes preparing referees to work with VAR systems and supporting efforts so that all future matches will be conducted using these technologies. I am grateful to the clubs that have contributed to creating the necessary technical conditions”, — Vadim Kostyuchenko noted.

"“This was a very useful meeting. Clubs had the opportunity to receive important information about the work of the refereeing corps, get answers to questions that interest them. We heard valuable proposals both from clubs and from the referees committee, and I am confident that such a discussion will contribute to the development of constructive cooperation. The FUA is ready to help with this”, — Oleg Protasov emphasized.