Gianluca Rocchidesignator of the Serie A and B referees, spoke at Open VAR on Dazn. The speech was broadcast after Roma-Inter this evening, but was recorded before the match: for this reason there is no reference to the match played at the Olimpico.
It starts with the expulsion of Tijjani Reijnders in Milan-Udinese yesterday afternoon: “If you heard some doubts in the VAR discussions it is not about the DOGSO parameters, which are all there, but about the foul. Reijnders has a natural behaviour, but his legs cross: there we feel we support the pitch’s decision. Then once you blow the whistle on the DOGSO and therefore on the red card there are no doubts about the foul, but looking at the images the contact is there.”
The discussion moves on to Touré’s failure to give a yellow card for a foul on Chukwueze: “It’s a wrong decision, the warning is due here. It’s the classic step on foot, it’s not beyond measure because the player risks getting hurt after a movement alone But the yellow is missing and the VAR cannot suggest a yellow card.”
The goal disallowed for Kabasele at the end: “Basically, the reasoning is very simple. Here the Udinese player is, albeit very slightly, offside. He tries to play the ball in front of the opponent and is punishable. Many wonder why the the referee went to the monitor: because it is a subjective decision whether the impact (on Thiaw, ed.) is real or not. It is clear that it is, but the protocol had to be respected. It is a borderline situation, the offside position you only perceive through technology.”
In conclusion, Douglas Luiz’s strike on Patric, with a distant ball, was not sanctioned: “It’s not accidental and we don’t like certain behaviours, if he had been sent off no one would have said anything about it. A few weeks ago something like this happened in Juventus-Empoli, we had followed the pitch’s decision: I understand the speed of the decision, because the VAR does not punish the gesture in itself but depends on the extent of the blow. I can understand it, but it is behavior that we do not like and I reiterate company to point out to the players that certain behaviors have nothing to do with it. It’s not such a strong blow, otherwise I would call it an error: but it’s still a gesture that we definitely don’t like. There’s certainly no yellow card, I wouldn’t have been shocked if there had been a red card. The VAR non-intervention depends on whether something of even more importance was found: it is the only assessment they made.”