Lega Serie A President Lorenzo Casini confirms when semi-automatic offside calls will be introduced and discusses other VAR reforms, but shoots down the idea of reducing the league from 20 clubs to 18.

The meeting today of all 20 clubs was held during the break in play for the 2022 World Cup, as fixtures kick off again from January 4.

It was suggested that the use of semi-automatic offside technology would be from that date, but it is now confirmed that will be experimented from the midway stage of the season, so January 27.

“It is only a relative novelty, seeing as it is already applied in the Champions League, but is ulterior progress to reduce the margin of error,” said Casini in his press conference.

There were also discussions to introduce a first in football, a VAR challenge similar to tennis, where coaches can call for the referee to re-evaluate a situation using the on-field monitor.

“We are evaluating the use of a VAR challenge, and want to make the dialogue between referee and VAR public, or at the very least get them to explain their decisions. That can be experimented in the Coppa Italia.

“We’re also developing a way of ensuring more time is spent with the ball in motion. Ideally, we’d like to reduce the number of games and remove the slots for international friendlies.”

A way of cutting the fixture list down and increasing competition would be to reduce Serie A from 20 clubs to 18, a return to the old days that is still not quite the golden age of the league with 16 teams.

“At the moment, cutting down the number of teams is not a priority. Our models are the Liga and Premier League, who have 20 clubs and no play-offs for the title. When it comes to relegation play-outs, we could work with the Lega Serie B to find a different system of relegation and promotion.”

Casini also confirmed we are unlikely to see clubs other than Juventus take up the opportunity to field a B-Team in Serie C.

“There are numerous difficulties, largely financial ones, and we’ve seen requests for more flexibility in using players from the first and second teams.”

2 thought on “Lega Serie A discuss VAR, reforms and reducing clubs”
  1. Terrible idea if you make it overly complicated for a country like Italy who will use that tech to make it even more contentious for the teams. Imagine if teams can dispute or contest a VAR challenge. The ball will be kicked 30 hours later knowing how slow Italians roll with tech. The last thing PhD Max and the Wendy’s of Europe need is any more help.

  2. Your models are the La Liga and Premier League when it should be Bundesliga.

    Cut down the number to 18 and focus on quality over quantity.

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