Genoa President Alberto Zangrillo blasted Lazio and the Stadio Olimpico staff after they violated the rules by replaying a potential penalty incident on the big screens, effectively acting as an extra VAR.
The Grifone emerged 1-0 winners in last night’s Serie A match in Rome thanks to a Mateo Retegui header.
Lazio had two penalty appeals in the first half, from Ciro Immobile and Mattia Zaccagni, which were both rejected by the referee and not considered worthy of a VAR on-field review.
However, the Stadio Olimpico staff thought they would fill in the role and make sure everyone could see what happened by replaying the slow-motion incident on the big screens.
This infuriated Genoa President Zangrillo, who expressed his frustration on Instagram.
“Showing VAR on the big screens is one of the many things banned by the current regulations, but let’s just say it is made possible in some stadiums…”
The replay fired up the crowd even more, but did nothing to change the mind of the officials.
Those in the VAR booth had after all viewed the same footage already and considered it a normal coming together evaluated by the referee, who was in a good position to see it clearly.