Serie A refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi insists Italy remains far behind when it comes to ‘accepting a refereeing error as a component of football’ even with the aid of VAR.
Rocchi has been a regular on Italian streaming service DAZN this season, presenting a weekly round-up of contentious refereeing decisions in the previous Serie A round, airing footage and audio from the conversations with the VAR, explaining why certain choices were made.
He hopes it will help the general public, as well as players and coaches, to understand the interpretation of certain incidents and why they were seen that way.
“Abroad and in other sports, the referees are not insulted and criticised as much as they are here,” said Rocchi at the Social Football Summit in Rome.
“It would be wonderful to see an Italian stadium applaud the referee, just like I saw the crowd do a few days ago to a tennis umpire. We are a country where the referee has a very important figure, everyone waits to see who has been assigned to each game, but we ought to be a service in this sport, not a protagonist.”
While the Premier League seems to want less interruption from VAR, in Italy the push from the media, fans, players and coaches is to intervene more on every potential error.
“Technology moves quickly, but it all depends on how prepared we are to accept an error. There are countries who, despite being more technologically advanced than us, consider a refereeing error to be a component of football,” added Rocchi.
“As for VAR, it depends on how it is used. If you understand the philosophy behind it, then it is an extraordinary instrument, an ally for the referee. However, if you consider it a competition and feel the VAR is over-ruling you, then you will crumble.
“VAR is to support the referee, it cannot and should not replace him, nor become a second referee.”
The designator was asked if in future the games could be officiated more by the VAR than the referee on the pitch.
“I would hope not, but the development is so fast that anything could happen. We all as referees must accept when we’ve made a mistake, just as people should believe us when we say that it was the right decision.”
Rocchi also rejects the idea that referees are submissive to the bigger clubs and more star-studded squads on the field.
“I always tell the referees to be ruthless in their decisions. If they see something wrong, don’t care who is on the pitch, the experience he has or what he has achieved in his career.”