Serie A refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi maintains they have ‘eliminated 90 per cent of errors, but people only focus on the 10 per cent’ that seep through in the era of VAR.
The 2021-22 campaign was a controversial one when it came to refereeing decisions, with clubs such as Milan, Inter, Atalanta and Roma particularly furious with the officials.
Nonetheless, Rocchi is confident that the season was “certainly positive and this bodes well for the future, because we are investing in a group of young referees who can really grow into great officials. If I am criticised for giving time on the field to younger officials, I will take that.”
Rocchi was speaking at a seminar on refereeing in the era of Video Assistant Referee technology and he warns we are still in the early stages of this approach in the sport.
“Expectations have really gone up. The fact that we reduced 90 per cent of errors seems to go unnoticed, because people only focus on the 10 per cent remaining.”
As for protests from coaches such as Milan’s Stefano Pioli that Serie A officials blow the whistle far too often compared to the Champions League, Rocchi insists the Italian referees are “officiating in a European style.”
He discussed specialisation in becoming a VAR in future, over the next two or three years creating a core of seven or eight regulars who can also help to train others.
Rocchi: “Errori ridotti del 90%, ma ci si concentra sul 10% restante” #Rocchi #Arbitri https://t.co/n3duLUsObQ
— SportMediaset.it (@sportmediaset) June 22, 2022
Stop the self-congratulation Rocchi, incredible errors are still made on a regular basis. Errors that simply should not be allowed to happen with VAR.
Remember when Giroud fouled Sanchez, AC Milan went on to score the tying goal, and then VAR reviewed it, and judged there to be no foul?
No, me neither, because VAR simply didn’t get involved in these types of calls or non-calls. There are still disgraceful decisions that affect the Scudetto, lets not kid ourselves.
Remember Dzekos knockout elbow or Torinos penalty? Cleared by VAR! Just to mention a few disgraceful decissions to keep the scudetto race alive. Without reffering errors Inter would have -7 and Milan +5 point this season, so Rocchi dont kid yourself something nerde to happen here you are just lucky Milan won anyways or it would have been a big disgrace with this years errors!
Wrong. Just slowed down the game and still don’t know when to overturn an obvious call.
VAR in Serie A is awful. Impossible to celebrate any goal until they’re finished rewinding the last 10 mins for any minor infringement they can think of. VAR should only be for CLEAR errors and play on if infringement is more than 30 seconds old
Rocchi is as clueless as his days of officiating matches. Terrible referee and now a terrible management guy. One thing is a debatable mistake (that Grioud “foul” on Sanchez for example) and another thing is Handanovic fouling a guy outside the box or the penalty against Belotti. Those are not errors, those are corruption because even Stevie Wonder would have seen them
He’s right, now we just have blatant favouritism instead.