I read Giuseppe Marotta’s statements from Los Angeles and I find them out of place. According to the vast majority of observers, it wasn’t a penalty. More importantly, Antonio Conte’s words were clear and align exactly with what I think and have always said: VAR is an invaluable tool for preventing refereeing errors. It makes no sense to say it can intervene sometimes and sometimes it can’t. If there’s a refereeing error, the VAR officials should inform the referee. Otherwise, the progress of football progress is hindered and suspicions will grow. Additionally, referees are already in direct contact with VAR, so why shouldn’t they receive guidance from those able to see what’s happening on the pitch with the aid of technology? Conte expressed some undeniable truths, the same ones that I’ve supported for years!
It’s crucial to prevent the growth of suspicions and doubts and as Gianluca Rocchi highlighted, respect must be mutual to avoid, as he put it, “igniting the championship”.
It’s also worth emphasising that the referee should be free from any psychological influence, which however often exists between on-field and VAR referees. I think it’s evident to everyone that a new VAR regulation is needed to prevent inconsistent decisions which, as I’ve said, would only fuel doubts. It’s also well known that on-field referees are often not in favour of VAR intervention because corrections to their decisions reduce their autonomy and credibility. However, when faced with blatant incidents and obvious mistakes, VAR must intervene at least by prompting the referee to review the incident on the monitor. This is for the good of football.
Aurelio De Laurentiis
