Gianluca Rocchidesignator of Serie A referees, gave a long interview to Rai Radio 1speaking about 2024, which he defined as follows: “It has been a very complicated year. The work we do leaves no room for rest, it involves 152 people and is certainly complex and demanding. The designator is almost never praised and often criticized, not you can get distracted because you have big responsibilities. Small moments of satisfaction often slip away.”
Don’t you think you conceded too many penalties?
“We are trying to fight them… The 7th was a bad day, we gave 9 and some were inappropriate, but in the last rounds we went back to giving the right ones. A penalty should be given when there is something important because it can decide the results What I always tell my referees is that when your gut tells you a penalty, in 98% of cases it’s a penalty for Cagliari-Atalanta because the referee thought about the rebound and didn’t let his gut carry him. If had he followed her he would have granted it.”
Can on-call VAR be a possibility?
“It must only be used for clear and serious episodes, we cannot do slow motion. We are not the ones who can answer this question, we are always open to possible changes and innovations. In that case we will remove the referees’ responsibility a lot, instead placing responsibility on the shoulders of the referees. club or to the technician on duty. We have to work trying to build guys in front of the monitor, who are capable of deciding, of choosing when to intervene or not, that is, when an episode is clearly wrong or not”.
How do you rate your work?
“Good. We have started collaborations with the Coaches’ Association and the Players’ Association to allow our referees to better understand the dynamics. The referee must not only know the rules, but must be a great expert on football.”