Torino President Urbano Cairo declares “it’s not worth having” VAR, after Alex Berenguer’s goal against Udinese was disallowed.
The Spaniard thought he had opened the scoring after 11 minutes, but the linesman had his flag up early for offside, meaning the Video Assistant Referee couldn’t be consulted.
Replays showed that it was a very tight call, and the winger may well have been onside when the ball was played.
“I’ve always been in favour of VAR from the start,” Cairo told Gazzetta dello Sport.
Torino President Urbano Cairo declares “it’s not worth having” VAR, after Alex Berenguer’s goal against Udinese was disallowed.
The Spaniard thought he had opened the scoring after 11 minutes, but the linesman had his flag up early for offside, meaning the Video Assistant Referee couldn’t be consulted.
Replays showed that it was a very tight call, and the winger may well have been onside when the ball was played.
“I’ve always been in favour of VAR from the start,” Cairo told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“I defended and accepted the initial errors… but now I’m starting to have doubts. If this is the way it’s going to be used then it’s not worth having it.
“I challenge anyone not to share my doubts when you look at the number of errors against us. We’ve played four games, and in two we were clearly damaged. 50 per cent of matches…
“We’ve got a perfect average over the past two years, where there have been 34 games with refereeing errors.
“When you have an important, international level referee like [Paolo] Valeri you can’t accept that he’d make such an amateur mistake.
“Blowing for an offside, no matter how non-existent, that’s been signalled by the linesman without waiting for the end of the play is a serious mistake that can’t be justified, because it prevents VAR being used.
“Berenguer’s goal was clearly good even with the naked eye. A similar mistake could have happened on the first day of last season, but not after 42 games using VAR and a thousand meetings and explanations on the procedures.
“And I’m not just saying this out of the blue, because on the first day at Bologna last year the referee [Davide] Massa interrupted the game due to a signal from the linesman, just before a goal – again by Berenguer.
“Also in that case VAR wasn’t usable and a sacrosanct win was taken away. That incident was taken as an example to explain that in similar situations the play shouldn’t be stopped.
“I didn't protest because I thought, being the first day, there would be errors like you might make in school. But if a year later we get the same treatment it means certain things don’t come back, and it leaves me with a bad taste in the mouth.
“Last year in Chievo-Inter there was a similar situation, the referee didn’t take into account the linesman’s signal, he continued the game and then validated the goal on the replay because he’d continued the action.
“The second reason which causes me to have doubts is related to the excessive discretion in the use of Var.
“If you can decide whether or not to use it just as you please then I would broaden it to all dubious incidents.
“A review should be given at the discretion of the Coaches of the two teams in incidents they consider doubtful, but that’s just a suggestion.
“It would be enough if it was used in the right way, against Roma a goal was disallowed for a minimal offside. But then on a subsequent very doubtful incident, which in our opinion was a penalty on Iago Falque, the images weren’t reviewed.
“I thought that the introduction of the Var would make the league more balanced and would have offered guarantees for those small or medium-sized teams often penalised in the past against the big ones because of the psychological pressure, but above all it would have let us avoid huge errors.
“It’s not like that today, and yesterday’s match in Udine proves it.”