Former Serie A referee Luca Marelli has delivered his verdict on the escalating VAR controversy in Italy’s top flight.
Speaking to DAZN via FCInterNews, Marelli assessed Livio Marinelli’s decision to award a penalty to AC Milan last night.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side overturned a second-half deficit to beat Fiorentina 2-1 at San Siro, with Rafael Leao netting a double.
However, Marinelli’s decision to sanction Fabiano Parisi over a soft challenge on Santiago Gimenez cast a shadow on Milan’s triumph.
Indeed, the Serie A official initially waved ‘play on,’ only for VAR referee Rosario Abisso to intervene and overturn the call.
Marinelli pointed to the spot after consulting with the side-pitch monitor, but it was Abisso who made him change his mind.
Meanwhile, the same VAR official failed to intervene in Inter Milan’s dismal 4-3 defeat at Juventus last month.
Khephren Thuram did a similar thing to Ange-Yoan Bonny, yet there was no call from the VAR booth on that occasion.
These apparent double standards have reignited debate over the consistency of VAR decisions in Serie A.
Luca Marelli Slams Rosario Abisso over VAR Controversy
“The awarded penalty is highly debatable,” Marelli said. “Parisi’s hand is resting on Gimenez’s face. There is no holding; the contact is really minimal.
“It’s simply a hand placed on the neck.
“In my opinion, if the penalty is awarded on the field, you might raise an eyebrow, but you accept it because it’s a field judgment.
“On the contrary, the on-field review is outside the protocol. Especially because we have a very similar incident in Juve-Inter.
“In Adzic’s 4-3 goal, Thuram touches Bonny’s face, and in that case, the Juventus goal is allowed after the check because that touch was considered very light.
“There are many similarities and two completely opposite decisions.
“Either there was a mistake in Juve-Inter or a mistake in Milan-Fiorentina. In my opinion, the mistake was in Milan-Fiorentina.”
It wasn’t even a face slap but simulation and the shoulder tug was not a good enough reason to give a penalty so they had to free frame everything to prove that he touched his face whilst also completely ignoring him literally kicking another player while on the ground. Basically just decided to review the incident that’s favours more Milan and ignored the rest. Plus the ref being there in clear view when it happened means VAR can’t intervene but it seems clear and obvious error is just some none sense they come up when trying to favour/hurt teams. Just give the opportunity for coaches to demand a specific number if VAR reviews per match because now any VAR reviews will 100% favours the decision contested 100% simply because another ref suggested the review but if the coach did that it means ref can’t blindly give bad decisions
100% agree
the league is bcoming a fluke afta they dubiously allowed napoli to clinch serie a last season with some controversial decisions. anyway d popularity of serie a is growing slimmer in d region iam from, therefore no need to bother;let them continue their tricks – they frantically want 2 manufacture another champ in d league(to show competiveness in a currupt way).
Calciopoli is still here
It’s high time we stop talking like kids here. If the penalty was not given the same guy will point out an error and now that it was given say talk. It was a soft touch but in the box right? Milan has gotten the 3 points and everyone should just keep shut.
Nah. Just you should keep quiet
God bless you
wtf are you talking about? it was clear robbery.