Vitaliy Kvartsyany: 'Is it hard for the referee? Let him sell bananas!'

We had long wanted to meet and talk with the chief "helmsman" of Lutsk's "Volyn." We had accumulated quite a few questions for each other. That is why the conversation with the coach, who is always open to journalists, turned out to be very interesting. - Vitaliy Vladimirovich, last weekend your charges suffered a defeat that could put a cross on "Volyn's" ambitions to break into the European cups... - In the match with "Borysfen" we really counted on three points, since the team has the task of breaking into the European cups. Many people criticize us, including "Komanda," saying that with such play "Volyn" has nothing to do in Europe, but we should not artificially hold back the team's development. - Aren't you afraid of failing like Donetsk's "Metalurh"? - Getting onto the European stage in itself is a big step forward, an opportunity to attract new sponsors. Already now a number of firms are offering us cooperation. True, with one condition - first we need to earn a place in the UEFA Cup. It turns out like in that joke: "When you learn to swim, then we'll fill the pool with water"... - Lutsk is a small city. You have no steel, metal, or coal. How do you manage to keep the team afloat? - We are lucky that we have such a president - Vasyl Stolyar. We are also lucky with the regional governor, Volodymyr Bondar. I cannot tell you unequivocally that the club functions like a Swiss watch. Although we are also not making ends meet. In pilots' language, we work in difficult weather conditions. - Did the president set the task of breaking into the European cups for you, or did you set it for the team? - The president very much wants this. But I think we are not yet ready for the international arena. The players need to get used to each other, go out together, drink, and even fight. I have a good sense of the distance between the set task and the real situation. - Is this expressed in material support or in the quality of play? - Both in the quality of play and in the selection of performers. Everything needs time. We need to mature. Like "Dnipro," which strengthens itself with one or two players every year. - When "Volyn" comes out for warm-up, the opponent can feel fear from the very sight of your players. Why do you prefer tall and powerful players? Is that your taste, or is it a demand of the times? - To compete on equal terms with teams that field fast, technical performers (and we cannot afford such players), we need to offer counterarguments. I include fighting in all areas of the field among them. Thanks to the same Vasya Sachko, we have won more than one battle. I always tell my attacking players: "You must put your head where a defender would not put his foot." Yes, we lack speed, but I think that if my "little elephants" start running, there will be little space for everyone. For now we play through strength and athleticism, using long passes to cut off space and sharpen the game. - Do the legionnaires quickly understand your requirements? - They definitely have the desire to absorb everything. Our game analysis takes no less than two hours - the players listen to me with their mouths open, but then they still forget. - You said that to maintain a good microclimate in the team, you need to gather together more often, communicate, sit at the table. It is hard to imagine, for example, the Nigerian Omoko drinking together with the Estonian Rahn or the Bosnian Krunich... - I have never kicked players out for breaking the regime. We fine them, but then we still return the money. Before, I remember, we gave it to their wives. And if someone wants to drink, I do not object. But on condition that this in no way affects the training process. Sometimes after victorious games Vasya Sachko comes up to me and asks directly: "Can we drink beer in the locker room?" That is how it was two years ago when we beat "Dynamo" in Lutsk. Last year Serhiy Kovalets played for "Volyn," and he knew how to organize the team. He told me: "Vladimirovich, why are you shouting? The boys and I will go to the forest for shashlik, sit for a while, and everything will be fine." So if in moderation, I am not against it at all. - So, have there been cases when players did not know moderation? - Siankam, for example, we sent to Kazakhstan for re-education. If he wants to improve his game, we will keep him at "Volyn"; if not, we will sell him. Over two years, by the way, he brought a decent profit to Lutsk bars and nightclubs. - Do you chase players for excess weight? - Of course, 100 dollars for every extra kilogram. - You admitted that even before the meeting with "Borysfen" you had a premonition of a bad outcome for "Volyn." Does intuition never deceive you? - No. "Borysfen" created three chances and scored a goal. But at the start of the match we squeezed the Boryspil players so hard that they could not cross the center of the field. We had problems in organizing the game. Instead of shifting into fifth gear, the boys operated in second. We had no team speed. At halftime I told the players that if they did not restructure, there would be trouble. Because while we were organizing our attacks, "Borysfen" managed to fall back into defense and cover all the zones. I felt that the opponent could catch us out. That is what happened. In the end, the players only started running after they conceded a goal. Experience often helps predict how a game will unfold. Moreover, after seeing a team's warm-up 10 times, I can guess the score of the match in nine cases. I am rarely wrong. - In our traditional section "expert forecast," Boris Voskresensky once guessed almost all the results of the round... - I remember. But he could not predict the outcome of the match "Karpaty" - "Volyn." We won in Lviv 2:0, but for some reason many people did not believe in the honesty of our victory and wrote in the newspapers that it was a fixed match. We were in shock. Even before the game I felt that we would win. When our team beat "Shakhtar" two years ago, I also told one former "Volyn" player a day before the match that we would beat the miners. He went to a bookmaker's office and bet 1,000 dollars on us, and won 9,000. What kind of "fix" could there be here? - Nevertheless, for many, "Volyn" remains the most unpredictable team. - Of course, we would like to be more predictable in terms of our victories, like, for example, "Shakhtar." A coach's work is judged by the team's results. And ours are still unstable. - Who do you think will reach the final of the Ukrainian Cup? - I will not be disingenuous - it is more advantageous for us if "Shakhtar" and "Dynamo" reach the final. Of course, there is little chance of fourth place in the championship, but football is unpredictable, so we do not lose hope. - Now "Volyn" is fighting for the European cups, but a year ago a defeat of your team by the same "Borysfen" would not have been given such significance... - Indeed, we feel that opponents already treat us differently. In Kharkiv, "Metalist" after the match with "Volyn" celebrated as if it had beaten the champion. In general, with every match "Volyn's" points come harder and harder, but we are not going to revise our tasks. - Vitaliy Vladimirovich, at the last post-match press conference you spoke about the low quality of refereeing... - I in no way accuse the referee of preventing us from taking points. First of all, I look for fault in myself and in my players. But this time I raised the topic of the referees' qualifications. In Boryspil, in my opinion, the officiating did not correspond to the level of the top league. We all watch foreign championships. There, referees stop the game only in extreme cases. But in the match with "Borysfen," our desire to press and sharpen the game was simply broken by frequent stoppages. The players "rested" on the grass for five minutes! - But the referee is concerned about the health of the match participants. Give them an inch and dirty tackles and sneaky blows will begin... - Of course, one must act within the rules, coordinated tackling with all the laws of fighting and dueling. But if the game is hard, there is no need to stop it! This leads to the player being afraid to go into any challenge; he simply imitates fighting. Such a serious method of winning the ball as pressing suffers. - Is it not easy to find the golden mean between hardness and cruelty? - If it is hard for the referee, let him go to the market and sell bananas. The referee must try to preserve the dynamics of the game. I generally forbid my players to lie on the field. I tell them that if you lie there for more than a second, I will kick you out of the team and cut your salary. Probably other coaches should set their players up the same way. - Was the quality of refereeing higher in Soviet times? - Of course. Then about 90 percent of referees were people who had themselves played football at a high level. For example, Pyanykh, Zvyagintsev, Vadim Shevchenko... Now the qualifications of referees have greatly deteriorated. In my opinion, the poor-quality control on the part of the inspector also leaves a certain mark. And referees are a very important component of Ukrainian football. I do not want them to play the role of an anchor. Look at what is happening... We are not allowed to speak badly about refereeing, we are not allowed to criticize the regulations, we are not allowed to make emotional conclusions, we are not listened to when the calendar is drawn up. We are not allowed anything at all! At the same time, we pay money for participation in the championship. We feed everyone. In no European country have I encountered anything like this - Ukrainian clubs have to pay 73,000 dollars for one season. We added another 175,000 for legionnaires. Everyone laughs at us! When the issue of introducing an additional payment for legionnaires was being considered, not only I said that it was wrong. But we were not heard. - But that is the lever that should stimulate clubs to focus their scouting on homegrown players! - No, that is a violation of human rights! The regulations state that money for legionnaires goes to the development of youth football. I agree that the base in Gorenichi is needed for the younger generation of all Ukraine, but in Lutsk 400 children play football, and we take 175,000 dollars from them, while our own base is also still under construction. And Lutsk has no large combines, and all the plants, as a rule, belong to deputies from Kyiv. - What do you see as the way out? - The PFL has long been looking for a sponsor. But it is probably not doing so as actively as it should. Why look for someone when you can get money at the expense of the clubs and tell them what and how to do? The overwhelming majority of European championships long ago acquired title sponsors who take on all the expenses for holding the championship. Even in Poland this has been practiced for ten years. - Vitaliy Vladimirovich, have you often had to suffer because of your frankness and sincerity? - Of course. When my team won the championship or the regional cup, I would get up at six in the morning and head to the home of the plant director, and then, while he walked to work, along the way I would "extract" from him everything necessary for the players. There were cases when the director had to explain why I needed not 11 jerseys for the team, but, for example, 22. In the accounting department they closed doors in front of me. They said: "If Kvartsyany comes, tell him no one is here." I always tore my throat out for my players; people hid from me. I believe the boys deserved to be cared for like that. After all, at the end of their careers they will be left alone with their problems. And this way they will have a choice: either go into coaching or go into business. - Times have changed now. It has become easier for coaches, since organizational issues are mainly handled by the club president... - Yes, but my workload has not decreased. Fortunately, "Volyn" has a good president. Even if he cannot solve all issues, at least he understands what the team needs. And I am a coach who, together with the president, looks for additional incentives for the boys, not for myself. What I earn is quite enough for me. - If you had the opportunity, would you want to change something in your coaching career? Maybe it would have been worth becoming, for example, a referee... - No. I would not become a referee. I do not have the right temperament for it. Besides, our referees have a low level of qualification, which is why they are not allowed to officiate serious European matches. Over my entire career I have not met a single referee who would say: "Boys, do not come near me, we will play fair, like Latyshev." Although perhaps other coaches have come across such referees...

Verbatim "To grow, Herasymyuk constantly hung on the crossbar." "We cannot afford to acquire Brazilians or Nigerians who have plasticity and good technique, so we bet on tall performers. We had Oleh Herasymyuk, a very interesting and promising guy who has good speed technique. But "Volyn" could not keep him, because Kyiv's "Dynamo" invited him. Oleh grew up before my eyes. To grow taller, he hung on the crossbar every day, and then made marks on the wall, noting how much he had grown. Of course, he is not a giant, but nevertheless, thanks to persistence, he was able to add in height."

Gold, diamonds... "When I go to a press conference, I always mentally force myself to be silent," says Vitaliy Kvartsyany. - After I was fined 3,000 conventional units, I try to keep my emotions to myself, but still sometimes after provocative questions I can say too much, and then I come home and think: "Why did I say that?" I am always honest with journalists, but sometimes disinformation gets into the newspapers. I recall that in 1988 "Volyn" was supposed to go to Romania, but we were not allowed in because of organizational problems. We return home. It turned out that we did not enter the neighboring country for the reason that we were allegedly taking to Romania... gold and diamonds. That is what was written in two of our Lutsk newspapers. I later talked with that journalist, I say: "What are you writing? Come and ask. I will say it as it is, I will not fake it. But why look for a sensation where there is none?!" "During the World Cup in America we won a million coupons." "For some time now I have not played gambling games. Even in childhood, when I studied at the Kyiv sports boarding school, I went with friends to the races and played cards. Once I lost a large sum, and then my mother had to pay the money back for a year and a half. So I do not play billiards and I do not go to casinos. True, once, when the World Cup was being held in America in 1994, one of the Lutsk newspapers held a contest in which one had to predict the results of 10 matches. My son and I guessed all of them; he went to the editorial office and received about a million coupons, as they were then called."

"In the party regional committee I slept on a greatcoat, and even the police could not throw me out." "Already while working in the masters' team, at one point I spent almost a week in the party regional committee. In 1988 I promised two players - Fihel and Kulishevych - to help them acquire cars out of turn. In the party regional committee I slept on a soldier's greatcoat, and even the police could not throw me out of there. In the end the boys still received sixth-model "Zhigulis." The following year, when "Volyn" became regional champion, I was summoned to the party regional committee and told: "Vitaliy Vladimirovich, we want to sleep peacefully, so first places are enough for us. Please take eighth to tenth - and everything will be fine." I wrote a statement, but I was promised that the plant would transfer the stadium to the team. However, they deceived me by slipping me fake documents."

"My dog Rock helps me cope with stress like no one else." "I have a German shepherd named Rock. My wife, true, calls him Rocky. When "Volyn" plays at home, the dog goes with me to the stadium, and the whole time the match is on, she waits for me in the car. Rock helps me recover faster from post-match worries like no one else. He always senses what mood I will come home in. If I am not in the mood, he understands it and tries to distract me. Unfortunately, lately, because of constant busyness and travel, I have practically no opportunity to give Rock attention. So now my son is mostly the one taking care of the dog."

"My wife and I have already been together for 30 years. She is my best friend." "It is hard to call me a fan of fishing or hunting. I devote practically all my free time to football: I watch sports programs, read the press, attend other teams' games. My wife and I have already been together for 30 years. We have a son, and a five-year-old granddaughter. My wife is my best friend; I always feel her support. Of course, she wants me to be home more often, but at the same time she understands that my life is already impossible to imagine without football. I am satisfied with how my coaching career is unfolding. Many of our coaches have fabulous contracts, but I do not chase money, because I love football very much, and not myself in football."

By the way 126 matches as head coach in the Ukrainian top league (all with "Volyn"). 44 matches won, 23 drawn, and 59 lost. 125 goals scored by his players in 126 games, while conceding 180. 4th place - "Volyn's" current result - is the team's best ever in the Ukrainian top league.

Dossier Vitaliy Kvartsyany. Honored Coach of Ukraine. Born on July 19, 1953 in Lutsk. Graduate of the Lutsk youth sports school and the Kyiv sports boarding school. Playing career: "Volyn" ("Torpedo") Lutsk, SKA Chita, "Priborostroitel" Lutsk. Called up to the youth national team of the Ukrainian SSR. Graduated from the Lutsk Pedagogical Institute (Faculty of Physical Education) and the Higher School of Coaches in Kyiv. Coaching career: "Priborostroitel" Lutsk (1977-1984, player-coach), "Torpedo" Lutsk (1984-1987, coach), "Volyn" Lutsk (1987-1990), "Ostrovets," Poland (1990-1993), "Volyn" Lutsk (1994-1996), "Podillya" Khmelnytskyi (1997), "Metalurh" Zaporizhzhia (1998-1999, scout-coach), "Podillya" Khmelnytskyi (2000), "Volyn" Lutsk (2001-2005). Winner of the USSR championship in the second league in 1989. Winner of the Ukrainian championship in the first league in 2002.