Serie A refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi gives his view on the controversial refereeing in the Europa League Final between Roma and Sevilla. ‘The guidelines on handball are the same.’
Coach Jose Mourinho, the club and fans were furious after the defeat on a penalty shoot-out in Budapest, openly blaming referee Anthony Taylor.
His use of yellow cards was criticised, but above all the potential handling offence when Fernando’s arm was considered to be in a natural position by both Taylor and his Video Assistant Referee.
Many said that would’ve been given as a penalty in Italy, but is not in Europe, so are there such big variations?
“I will not judge the individual incidents in a competition that we are not involved in, but I can say there is no difference in philosophy between Italy and UEFA over handball,” said Rocchi in a press conference.
“The guidelines are the same, but with handball there is always going to be an element of subjectivity that goes down to the individual referee.”
This subjectivity is the cause of much frustration when there can be quite big differences between the ways incidents are interpreted by referees.
Rosetti also assures the Italian officials are no longer to be considered a breed apart from their European counterparts in letting the game flow.
“This season the objective was to see a more European style of refereeing, first of all to make football more enjoyable to watch and second to make it easier for referees. This is the path.
“It is not true that nowadays the referees blow the whistle more often in Italy than in Europe.”