The decision by referee Marco Guida not to award Torino a penalty for Inter defender Andrea Ranocchia’s challenge on Andrea Belotti has been branded as the “worst refereeing error since VAR was introduced” in Serie A.
Today’s print edition of the Corriere dello Sport were scathing in their assessment of how the referee and especially the VAR handled the incident to arrive at the decision not to award a penalty.
Inter defender Ranocchia appeared to have fouled Granata captain Belotti in the penalty area, but referee Marco Guida waved play on, apparently having believed that the Nerazzurri player won the ball.
The VAR, led by Davide Massa, looked at the incident but concluded that there was not enough in it to intervene and advise the on-pitch referee to have a second look.
In the view of the Corriere, this was exactly the type of incident where the VAR should be used to correct mistakes made by the official on the pitch, and it was inexplicable that a penalty was not awarded by either Guida or the VAR.
The newspaper gave Guida a very low 3.5/10 score for his handling of the match, but they were even more critical of Massa in the VAR booth, giving him just a 3/10 grade.
