Serie A will be the ‘first federation to air audio’ of the conversations between VAR officials and referees from the 2023-24 season, it has been confirmed.
The plan had been in the works for some time and was announced by refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi.
“We still need to decide, but there will be the utmost transparency,” said Rocchi in a press conference.
“The VAR audio recordings will be made public via DAZN from the start of the season. We have started an innovative project with DAZN and will be the first football federation to air audio of incidents that are the subject of discussion.”
It seems that it will not be an automatic access to all the recordings, but rather hand-picked incidents that caused the most controversy during that weekend’s games.
That could change with time and it could also depend on DAZN, who have the streaming rights to most Serie A games, what they will air.
It is also therefore unlikely the VAR audio will be heard immediately during the match, but some time later.
Meanwhile, refereeing designators could also have an opportunity to outline the reasoning behind certain decisions, whether they were correct or not.
“The problem is not if a mistake was made, but why,” added Rocchi.
“The solution is to have a space of our own every 15 days or once a month where we can explain the incidents.”
There are already several former referees who act as pundits on Italian television and give their analysis of controversial situations both during and after the matches, but they are not always in agreement with the choices made by the officials and VAR.