Lazio released a blistering statement about the failure of VAR to intervene in the defeat to Napoli. ‘What is technology for if not to avoid errors like this? We ask for uniformity to protect the credibility of the League.’
Maurizio Sarri was furious after last night’s 2-1 defeat to Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico, based largely on the incident that saw Manuel Lazzari caught in the fact by Mario Rui’s arm inside the penalty area.
Sarri was angry in his post-match comments to Sky Sport Italia, suggesting the VAR officials were “either bad at their job or the alternative is very worrying.”
Today Lazio released a statement via their director whose entire job is to work with the referees and help educate the players on how some incidents can be interpreted, former Serie A referee Marco Gabriele.
“Napoli won a hard-fought match and we compliment the team. However, yesterday’s result was also decided by incidents regarding the officials.
“First and foremost, the referee’s decision not to award a penalty for an elbow in Lazzari’s face inside the box. In these cases, the VAR can help the referee, but chose not to even send him to the monitor, where he would’ve seen a clear-cut penalty.
“On the Napoli equaliser, too, there was a push on Luis Alberto, who was marking the scorer, but this too was not taken into consideration by the referee.
“What is technology for if it is not used to avoid errors like this?
“On top of that, in this game Lazio had to put up with an incomprehensible application of yellow cards that was entirely aimed one way, including three concentrated in a few minutes once the team was trying to recover the result.
“The club will continue to ask, for everyone, attention and uniformity in decisions taken on the field of play, to protect the credibility of the League.”
DAZN refereeing expert Luca Marelli explained that this contact was not sufficient to call VAR into action, as the referee was in a good position to judge.
Similarly, if the referee had awarded a penalty, then VAR would not have told him otherwise.