Referee designator Gianluca Rocchi warns Serie A clubs that match officials ‘will no longer accept everything’ and notes that ‘in terms of protests, any sort of thing happened’ in Wednesday’s Rome derby.
Rocchi held a press conference at Coverciano on Friday as pressure on Serie A referees and VAR is growing with recurrent protests from club and players.
“We made avoidable mistakes during the last two rounds, and I got angry with the lads,” Rocchi, a former Serie A and international referee, admitted, as quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“From now on, however, we will no longer accept everything. We are respectable people, the lads are respectable people. Hands off them. If I am the problem, I can leave straight away.
“We are doing good work on VAR, also psychologically, with some sessions in Lissone. The group of VAR officials must be protected.” he continued.
“We explain our errors every week because we want to let people know how we work. To know that, behind an error, there could be superficiality or an incorrect evaluation, but nothing more.”
Rocchi probably referred to Hellas Verona director Sean Sogliano, who had said after a 2-1 loss against Inter on Friday that ‘someone higher up than the VAR decided it had to go like this.’
“We are a young team with good prospects, you’ll realise it when I am no longer here. Big teams invest in young players and we do the same with referees. I ask the referees to have a different commitment and to the sporting justice to be tough,” added Rocchi.
“I demand respect for our roles; we are not hiding when we make mistakes, but we will no longer accept violence and aggression. We came close to an assault in Serie A, imagine in the lower divisions. We must let the referee go on the pitch and decide serenely.”
There were several debatable calls over the last two Serie A rounds and Coppa Italia meetings with Milan protesting for a late penalty kick given to Atalanta on Wednesday and Salernitana appealing for a Federico Gatti red card in their latest league game against Juventus.
There was controversy in the latest Coppa Italia Rome derby as well as it saw the Biancocelesti progress to the semis thanks to a Mattia Zaccagni penalty.
“Did you see the Rome derby? There was the best referee in the world, and in terms of protests, any sort of thing happened,” said Rocchi.
“In Salerno, there was Guida [for Salernitana-Juventus], one of the top referees at an international level, and he was nearly attacked in the tunnel. We will no longer accept this. We must improve on the pitch but do not think that those who raise their voice randomly can get a result.
“The last two rounds were more challenging because there were more fouls so the playing time raised. Champions League games are easier because teams play football and the referee doesn’t blow the whistle much. Juventus-Inter was easy because they played football and there was no tension or too many fouls,” Rocchi concluded.