Biography - Russian referee Sergey Karasev studied justice and following the spirit and letter of the law not only on the field, but also at the university. The judge, who is called the Russian Pierluigi Collina— is a certified lawyer, ready to learn and improve in order to maintain a high bar in his career and in life.
Childhood and youth - Sergey Gennadievich Karasev was born in June 1979 in the capital of the USSR. At the age of 7, the boy suddenly became bald. Years later, he will notice in an interview that there were pluses in this incident in the biography — the loss of hair taught the future arbiter independence of judgment and the ability to resist the majority opinion.
Sergey was engaged in swimming and basketball as a child, and then became a pupil of the Timiryazevets youth sports school, since the family lived near the Nauka stadium, where the club played home matches. In the amateur football league, Karasev played as a defender for the team of the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering. Realizing that his talents would not be enough to move to the top division, the guy switched to refereeing on the advice of his father.
Football - Sergey started his judicial career in 1995. The rise to the Russian Premier League took Karasev 13 years. To achieve this goal, he studied at the Football Referee Center for 3 years, combining his studies with work as an assistant referee at second division matches. Karasev made his debut as the chief judge of the first division in 2006.
Until 2005, Sergey Gennadievich combined refereeing on the field with working as a lawyer in a bank, spending as much time in a business suit as in boots. But then the banking authorities offered Karasev to make a choice.
In 2010, Sergey refereed FIFA matches for the first time. To work internationally, Karasev needed to master English. He did this with his mother-in-law, who taught foreign languages and agreed to help her son-in-law. In addition to home schooling, the referee went to a language school in Malta, where he improved his skills for 2 weeks in order to easily pass the exam to a member of the judging committee.
In the spring of 2014, he was entrusted with refereeing in the final of the Cup of the Russian Federation. Karasev was one of the 18 referees at Euro 2016, he had the opportunity to judge matches between Romania and Switzerland, Iceland and Hungary.
In May 2018, Sergey Gennadievich made a gross mistake in the semi-final match of the Europa League. Due to an incorrectly appointed corner by the referee, the Salzburg team lost to Marseille. At the 2018 World Cup, held in Russia, Karasev refereed the match between Australia and Peru.
In the work of the referee, Karasev considers the main problem not physical exertion (the referee runs 10-12 km during the match) and not football players entering into tough martial arts, but players trying to get the referee out of themselves, starting arguments and making comments. Sergey is convinced that only people with a very strong psyche and an unflappable character can judge matches.
In early autumn 2019, Karasev refereed the Euro 2020 qualifying round match between Slovenia and Poland, held in Ljubljana. The statistics of the game were expressed in two unanswered goals that the home team scored against the opponent. Karasev was appointed chief referee for the September match of the Russian Premier League between Zenit and Rubin, which ended with a score of 5 : 0 in favor of the St. Petersburg club.
Sergey Gennadievich says that he is preparing for the upcoming match by studying the teams in advance and paying special attention to problem players. In 2020, the referee took part in the Russian Championship and was announced to referee the game between the national teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands in the group stage of the League of Nations. But he could not attend the match because of a positive test result for coronavirus.
Karasev's professional skills were criticized after recovering from an illness. In the match of the 15th round of the Russian Premier League "Akhmat" - "Zenit", held in Grozny, Sergey Gennadievich awarded a penalty to the blue-white-blue goal. His decision was found erroneous by the expert-judicial commission under the President of the RFU.
Sergey Karasev judges the Netherlands - Czech Republic 1/8 Euro 2020
Personal life - Karasev is married. The referee's wife is well versed in football. In an interview, Sergey Gennadievich claims that he listens to his wife's opinion regarding refereeing at the match. He has three children. The eldest and youngest daughters are not interested in football, the son is happy when he sees his father on the TV screen, and at home, under the supervision of the head of the family, he learns the basics of football skills.
A prosperous personal life and communication with the family help the referee to recover after matches.
Karasev likes black in clothes, and appreciates heavy rock in music.
The judge has a dacha near Moscow, but his mother-in-law is engaged in gardening and gardening. The arbitrator admits that he does not understand well how pumpkins gain weight and why one year is fruitful for apples, and the other is not.
Sergey Karasev as a guitarist.
Sergey Karasev now - Now the referee maintains a high level of efficiency. His team was assigned to the match of the 1/8 final of the Champions League Manchester City - Borussia Monchengladbach, held in Budapest in March 2021.
The referee drew attention by not taking part in a protest against racism and police violence against blacks, during which all the players got down on one knee before the start of the game.
Match of the 1/8 final of the Champions League Manchester City - Borussia Monchengladbach.
In April, Karasev was included in the list of referees serving Euro 2020. Having worked on the match of the 2nd round of Italy — Switzerland, which ended with a score of 3 : 0, the referee received high reviews from Italian fans.
At the match of the 3rd round of the Euro 2020 group stage, Germany - Hungary, Sergey Gennadievich headed the Russian team of referees, assisted by assistants Igor Demeshko and Maxim Gavrilin.
