Using the Domenico Berardi potential red card for Sassuolo against Juventus as an example, refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi explains why VAR can only intervene ‘for a clear and obvious error.’
DAZN made history this evening by airing the recorded conversations between the referees and Video Assistant Referee centre in Serie A matches from this season.
Rocchi was in the studio to help explain and give context to the situations that were seen and heard in those games.
Fans, coaches and players often complain that VAR either does not intervene enough for debatable incidents or intervenes too often, so what is the criteria and can the referee ever refuse to re-evaluate a decision?
“The referee never says no to being called for an on-field review, I can guarantee you, they would not be allowed to continue after that. It is meaningless to have technology at your disposal and refuse to use it,” said Rocchi.
“As of today, the philosophy is to have referees who make decisions and bring the game home. It is also not necessarily true that if a referee is in the correct position to evaluate that he cannot be wrong, because there can still be a clear and obvious error.
“The fact is that having the referee evaluate with an on-field review for too many incidents would lead to the flow of the game being broken up.”
Although that footage was from this weekend and therefore cannot be aired yet, Rocchi did discuss the controversial incident during Sassuolo’s 4-2 victory over Juventus.
Berardi was shown a yellow card for a studs-up tackle on Gleison Bremer’s shin, but the referee was not urged to view it again on the pitch-side monitor.
“In this case, the VAR considered it to be evaluated correctly on the pitch and did not feel it had the evidence required to call it a clear and obvious error,” explained refereeing designator Rocchi.
“At the same time, I have no problem saying that while the VAR made the correct decision, in my view it would’ve been better to give a red card for that rather than a yellow.”