Serie A referee Gianluca Rocchi believes video assistant referees have been “absolutely positive” for Italian football.
VAR is finally enjoying acceptance in Serie A after a rocky start, and Rocchi feels the mistakes made have only served to help the technology’s development.
“Does VAR need to be talked about more? It’s true that the controversy arises precisely from interpretation,” he told Corriere dello Sport.
Serie A referee Gianluca Rocchi believes video assistant referees have been “absolutely positive” for Italian football.
VAR is finally enjoying acceptance in Serie A after a rocky start, and Rocchi feels the mistakes made have only served to help the technology’s development.
“Does VAR need to be talked about more? It’s true that the controversy arises precisely from interpretation,” he told Corriere dello Sport.
“There’s zero of it in goal-line technology. It’s a crucial part of football: the referee who watches the video is like someone the pitch. It’s therefore right to talk about it more.
“We never thought that the controversy would be over. It wouldn’t be football, let alone our football. And this is more a cultural thing than sporting.
“It’s a decisive moment for our League, so it was to be expected. But I’ll say this: think what would’ve happened, in this hard-fought season, with five teams fighting for the Scudetto, without VAR…
“It’s absolutely been positive. Clearly we’re at a teething stage, which always involves some minor difficulties, so we need to gain more experience with it.
“Mistakes must be allowed, indeed, they must be foreseen, budgeted. Obviously we’re working so they’re at a minimum. We started from almost zero and quickly got to a good standard.
“Our experiences are a new thing, they come from some errors of judgment, but growth inevitably has this price and goes from here.”