Serie A referee Paolo Valeri admitted that he made a mistake by not suggesting that Atalanta’s Hans Hateboer should’ve been sent off for a foul on Milan’s Rafael Leao.
The incident occurred during the Rossoneri’s visit to Bergamo back in August. Leao was running down the wing, looking to break into the box when Hateboer flew in for a late challenge, completely missing the ball. The Atalanta midfielder was only shown a yellow card for the incident, which seemed to be worthy of a red on retrospect.
Speaking at Guglielmo Stendardo’s course at Luiss, Valeri discussed the incident and admitted the mistake he made in the VAR room.
“Yes, I made a mistake on Hateboer, I was on the VAR and that foul on Leão was red hot. A mistake, I’ll explain it: the player got up immediately, no one asked for anything, the game resumed almost immediately.
“That’s it, you get into a tunnel, you convince yourself of an idea, you make it your own and you end up making a mistake instead you have to be aseptic, forget about being a referee.
“It happened to me, it happened last year in Torino–Inter. We have to be more careful.”
The Serie A referee then explained who makes the decision regarding a clear and obvious error.
“If the episode is subjective and not objective, it cannot be reviewed by VAR. And since in the VAR we control everything, at the moment there is no challenge from the benches. Among other things, I don’t think it is a deterrent to controversy.
“If a referee goes to the monitor after a coach’s call and confirms his choice, what would happen? Today our young colleagues are obsessed with episodes, they show them to us at the training ground.
“In my day, our coaches, like the late Stefano Farina, used to talk to us about something else: how we were on the pitch, how we related to the players. The single episode was the last problem.”
The usage of VAR and quality of officiating in Serie A is an ever-hot topic and this season has proved no different, with coaches and fans alike regularly complaining about the decisions made by the referees.