Legendary former Juventus and Roma midfielder Zbigniew Boniek believes that the decision to award a penalty to the Bianconeri against Inter on Sunday evening was an unnecessary use of VAR.

Speaking to Italian broadcaster TMW Radio, the Pole gave the view that since the on-pitch official didn’t see the incident as a penalty, there should have been no reason for VAR to step in and award a spot kick.

Inter wing-back Denzel Dumfries made contact with the foot of Juventus left-back Alex Sandro with a clumsy challenge on the edge of the penalty area, but referee Maurizio Mariani waved play on in real time.

The official was advised by VAR to have a second look at the incident and after reviewing the video he decided that there was enough in the challenge to award a penalty.

Boniek sees this as an unnecessary use of the VAR technology, and suggested that the application of this kind will only create more controversy.

“In Poland we were among the the first to introduce the VAR, ” he stated, “at the time it was us and Italy. It changed the controversy, now it is more about technology. Yesterday in Inter-Juventus the referee is a few meters from the action, he saw all the dynamics and says to go on.”

“Then in the end no one protested, yet they gave a penalty kick, the VAR created the most technological controversy, it raised the level a little, but in football there will always be controversy,” he went on.

“We could do another thing,” the former midfielder stated, “we are thinking about it and we’re analyzing: you could make a nice statement on Monday about what happened over the weekend. You say people want to know, I live among the people and I think people want the team to win. They don’t care why it was.”

“Inzaghi got kicked out. Yesterday the referee was perhaps off a little touch, but do you know how many decisions are missed? It is a dangerous thought. The referee said play on, then let’s play.”

And on the Scudetto race he stated that Napoli and AC Milan are favourites “In terms of score and continuity, yes. But I would not underestimate Inter and especially Juventus, they are behind in the standings but it’s a ten kilometer race and we are in third.”