vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #531 / Sports / Reading article...

The much anticipated Russian Premier League game between Vladivostok’s Luch and Moscow’s Spartak to be held in Vladivostok on Saturday will be refereed by Japan’s Toru Kamikawa, an internationally reputed referee who officiated at this year’s World Cup.

The Japanese ref was invited at the initiative of Spartak’s club management, The Vladivostok reported. At the Saturday match, Kamikawa will be ensuring fair play together with two Russian assistant referees, Yevgeny Volnin and Andrei Malorodov.

This July the 43-year-old Kamikawa officiated the Word Cup’s third-place game between Germany and Portugal.

Alexei Tyumin, who officiated the latest Luch match with Moscow’s CSKA on August 3, has been banned from refereeing in the National Premier League and first division games at least until the end of this season, announced the Russian Football Association at Wednesday’s meeting.

Banning Tyumin resulted from his poor calls during the match including his failure to send off the field a CSKA goalkeeper for foul play and for showing an unearned red card to a Luch player Alexander Tikhonovetsky.

“With this decision, we show our intention to strictly pursue such inexplicable referee mistakes,” The Trud newspaper cited Vitaly Mutko, President of the Association.

Over 200 Spartak fans are expected to arrive from Moscow in Vladivostok to support their team. Vladivostok is seven time zones and more than 10,000 kilometers from Moscow.

Interestingly, the Vladivostok team, which made it to the National Premier League just this year, has won six games at home during this season, with one game ending draw.