Italian Referees’ Association President Alfredo Trentalange says VAR allows officials to ‘sleep easy at night’ by avoiding ‘catastrophic’ errors and insists interviews would only ‘explain decisions, not try to justify them.’
The introduction of Video Assistant Referee technology was meant to close down some of the controversy around the Italian league, but in some ways has only exacerbated the fury when contentious decisions are confirmed.
“We think VAR is irreplaceable, as it allows the referee to sleep easy at night,” AIA President Trentalange said at a roundtable event.
“When a referee makes a mistake, it is a catastrophe, because the error can directly affect the result. Today he can afford to make a big error, safe in the knowledge there is technology and a human factor that will give him a hand to re-evaluate the incident.”
There are still some incredibly long waits for VAR to review situations and Trentalange assures that will improve with time.
“VAR is still a very young instrument in the sport. The Italian Referees’ Association was founded 110 years ago, but VAR has only been around for five or six yards. So before really being able to get the best out of this instrument, it will take time.”
There are already some advances that are coming rapidly, as semi-automatic offside is already in use for the World Cup and Champions League, and is set to be introduced in Serie A very soon.
“It will be in use by the end of this Serie A season,” assures Trentalange.
When he took over, the AIA chief had promised to lift the ban on referees speaking to the media, but that has been postponed repeatedly.
“It’s a long process that we are working on. The objective is to have a specific channel allowing us to teach people by explaining the reasons we make certain decisions, not to justify them. That is one of the aims we have to increase transparency.”
Right, like Milik’s clear winning goal and Danilo’s cancelled ‘handball’ when it was being grabbed. Var is great.