CONI President Giovanni Malagò could hardly ‘believe it was possible’ that such serious refereeing errors were allowed in Italy’s Under-21 European Championship defeat to France.
Along with appeals for a foul in the build-up to the second France goal and a Pierre Kalulu handball, the most serious incident was in stoppages when the ball had visibly crossed the line for what would’ve been the Italy equaliser and 2-2 result.
However, the absence of VAR and goal-line technology in the tournament saw all these errors remain.
“I cannot believe it was possible for this to happen,” Italian Olympic Committee chairman Malagò told news agency ANSA.
“When I discovered there was no VAR or goal-line technology, I asked myself how it is possible that such a mistake can be made. The human error was bad enough, it was incredible.
“Perhaps nowadays spectators and players, but also the referees, are no longer accustomed to officiating without the aid of technology. This is an objectively very serious mistake that strongly affected the result and penalised Italy.”
It is reported UEFA will introduce both VAR and goal-line technology from the quarter-finals of the competition, but that could well be too late to salvage Italy’s tournament.
Sky Sport Italia have also suggested that the European Championship in Romania and Georgia had cut out technology in order to save money.
The Azzurrini will have to play Switzerland and Norway in the group phase, with the top two going through to the quarter-finals.
Who was the referee? Anthony Taylor?