Football club Sutjeska announced this evening with a statement in which some referee decisions were singled out, which, according to them, "directly affected the final outcome of our team's matches, in the hope that someone in the FSCG will take this seriously and understand the necessity of introducing technology (VAR) which every serious league has long had, no matter how challenging, difficult or expensive it is."
We transmit Sutjeska's announcement in its entirety:
"The current competitive season 2024/25, like none so far, is full of a large number of serious refereeing errors that, without a doubt, directly affected the final outcome of a large number of games and thus generated huge dissatisfaction among the majority of clubs competing in the 1st CFL .
Not wanting advertising on this occasion to be interpreted as an alibi for our club's results in this part of the championship, we have not advertised until now, believing that these are unintentional accidental oversights that will remain exceptions and not become the rule.
The events at the last championship game that was played in Bar, against the Sailor team, are the last straw and an alarm that the problems of bad and unprofessional refereeing must be solved urgently, otherwise the competition will lose its meaning.
In the following text and the attached photos and video, we would like to draw the attention of the football public to a number of major refereeing mistakes that were made in the last few rounds, which directly harmed our club and had a decisive impact on the result.
In the meeting of the 8th round of the Meridianbet 1st CFL against Jezera at the Stadium near Bistrica, at the end of the 78th minute, the defender of the visiting team Mihailo Ilić (number 4) made a reckless start and fouled our player Vasko Kalezić (number 70) in the penalty area, but the main judge Mladen Knežević did not announce.
As a reminder, at the end of the previous season in the match against Arsenal in Tivat, when we were fighting for the title of national champion, our striker Dušan Vuković received a straight red card for a similar offense (which happened in the middle of the field).
In the derby of the 10th round against the current champion, the Dečić team, a situation was seen that was buzzing about in the media in Montenegro and the region.
Namely, in the very end of the match and in one of the last attacks, Ognjen Đinović shook the opponent's net, and the referee Dalibor Vujisić signaled his assistant Vladislav Radenović to be offside, thus depriving our team of the victory we earned on the field.
In full view of the entire football public, the unfairly disallowed goal was not enough reason for the referee to be sanctioned and already in the next round he got the opportunity to distribute justice again, as if there was no mistake.
Already in the next round, another derby followed, this time against Budućnosti in Nikšić.
The disputed situation of this match was seen in the 31st minute when the player of Budućnosti Lazar Savović (number 22) fouled Vasko Kalezić (number 70) in his penalty area, and the referee Nikola Dabanović just waved his hand and signaled for the game to continue.
In the 22nd minute of the match against Sailors in Topolica, the home goalkeeper Đorđije Pavličić (number 1) intervened outside the five-meter area and on that occasion hit Nikola Janjić (number 3) in the head with his knee, who remained on the ground, and the referee Miloš Savović, besides not playing an obvious foul, he didn't even stop the game for 35 seconds due to the injury to our player's head, even though he was obliged to do so at the same time according to the rules of the football game.
Perhaps the reaction of the chief judge Savović was missing, but the doctors of the Bar General Hospital had to react instead, to whom we would like to thank on this occasion, because the young representative of Montenegro in the already mentioned duel received a blow that was not for the most severe punishment, but for a greater number of stitches on the head.
In the second half, more precisely in the 77th minute, another referee's decision that we don't see often on football fields.
In the slow-motion video, from several angles, it is clearly visible that the foul by our defender Nemanja Đurović (number 55) on Marko Đurišić (number 8) was outside the penalty area, and the referee Miloš Savović played a penalty, and changed the decision (when field in front of the penalty area saw traces of a sliding start) and awarded a foul, but after talking and assisting his assistant Marjan Paunović (pay attention to the position of the assistant during start), pointed to the white dot.
Even in the previous period, referee Savović was no stranger to conceding a non-existent goal (match Jedinstvo - Dečić, 7th round 1. CFL), so why would it be strange to him to call a non-existent penalty as well.
The worst of all is that referees who make cardinal mistakes are not adequately punished, so it seems to be understood that the club, if they did not complain, is satisfied with the refereeing.
The big problem with referee errors is not only the damage caused by the referee's wrong decision itself, but also the damage that follows it. The players usually react violently to an unfair referee's decision, after which they receive disciplinary sanctions in the form of yellow and red cards, due to which they do not have the right to play in the following matches, which further damages the clubs, and the referee's error takes on its full meaning.
In this announcement, we singled out only some of the obvious situations that directly affected the final outcome of our team's matches, in the hope that someone in the FSCG will take this seriously and understand the necessity of introducing technology (VAR), which every serious league has had for a long time. however challenging, difficult or expensive it may be.
FK Sutjeska can and must correct its mistakes in order to return to where it realistically belongs, and we will improve our current position in the table and the poor points balance in the following matches until the end of the season.
We will have a much easier task if we have a fair and honest trial," the Sutjeska football club said in a statement.
Bonus video:
