“Penalties and penalties. But this way the referee distances himself from football.” On the pages of Tuttosportthe former whistleblower Gianpaolo Calvarese analyzes the episodes of the last day. Starting from the controversial handball by Luperto in Juventus-Cagliari: sunny in terms of the regulations, but difficult to explain based on the sense of the game.
“Does simplifying some difficult situations, such as the contact between the arm above the shoulders and the ball – asks Calvarese – and standardizing some aspects of handball (and not only) really help to dispel doubts? According to what is declared every week by the professionals, absolutely not. […] If even competent people, footballers and journalists think that modern refereeing is moving away from the world of football then we should be worried. And I, personally, agree with them.
In my life I have been lucky enough to have great teachers and I have never heard anyone talk about ‘imprudence’ or ‘incompetence’ in Coverciano, except in quizzes! These are standardizations that may be fine for a level of refereeing that is not that of Serie A. In the top leagues there is a need for sensitivity and football knowledge. It is therefore no coincidence that professionals often renew the idea of including footballers, i.e. those who can actually grasp the dynamics of the game and the real intentions of a footballer when he commits a foul, dynamics which today seem to escape referees. […]
I believe we are moving too far away from the game of football because the technical quality of reading the episodes is lacking, which cannot be standardised. Otherwise everyone would be good at refereeing in Serie A.”