The consumer protection agency in Italy has filed a formal legal complaint demanding Serie A games Milan–Spezia and Spezia-Lazio be replayed due to clear technical errors from the referee and VAR.
The Codacons filed the motion in the Rome Tribunal today, calling on the FIGC to order the replay of the two matches in order to guarantee the regularity of the 2021-22 Serie A season.
Their legal argument is that both games were decided by “macroscopic technical errors” by the referee, assistant referees and VAR.
Milan were 1-1 with Spezia in stoppages when Junior Messias scored a goal, but it was not valid because the referee blew the whistle for a free kick too early rather than give the advantage to the Rossoneri.
Moments later, Spezia went on the counter-attack and scored the winner for a 2-1 result at San Siro.
The referee confessed to his mistake and was distraught, as he knew VAR could not intervene in these situations.
As for Spezia 3-4 Lazio, that was decided by a Francesco Acerbi goal in injury time that should’ve been disallowed for offside.
In this case, the VAR was seemingly to blame, not realising that the goalkeeper had come way off his line, so Acerbi needed to be level with two outfield players rather than just one.
There is still some confusion over exactly what happened in that incident, some suggesting there was a lack of communication between the VAR and the referee, so he restarted play without waiting for the check to be completed.
This appeal, like many of those presented by the Codacons, is unlikely to go anywhere.
Spezia had already appealed over the last few days for a replay of the Lazio match, but were told it was impossible.
Nonetheless, the wording of the appeal is likely to create some waves, as it accuses the Federation of damaging “not only clubs, but also fans and those who bet on results that were clearly falsified by incredible refereeing errors.
“These are not simply errors of interpretation at the discretion of referees, but technical errors in the application of the rules of the sport.”