Francesco Massini, deputy vice president of the Italian Referees Association, addressed the death threats received by referee Federico La Penna.
Speaking to the ANSA news agency via FCInterNews, Massini condemned the threats, calling them beyond the limits of civility and sportsmanship.
Federico La Penna fell victim to online abuse after his controversial decisions during Saturday’s Derby d’Italia.
Indeed, the 42-year-old referee made a game-defining decision in the first half, and he was wrong.
Unfortunately, Inter center-back Alessandro Bastoni fooled La Penna, with his antics resulting in Pierre Kalulu’s expulsion.
Meanwhile, Inter would go on to win the match, emerging as 3-2 victors, courtesy of Piotr Zielinski’s last-gasp winner.
However, Bastoni and La Penna have both found themselves on the receiving end of malicious attacks on social media.
Furthermore, the 26-year-old defender had to turn off comments on his Instagram profile.
On the other hand, La Penna filed a complaint with the cyber police.
Francesco Massini Condemns Death Threats Aimed at Referee Federico La Penna
“What happened to Federico La Penna has crossed every limit of civility and sportsmanship,” the high-ranking AIA official said.
“A referee who has to fear for his family, for his wife and daughters, because of a decision made on the pitch, is something that should outrage everyone, without exception.
“We are no longer in the realm of sport when certain boundaries are crossed,” Massini stated.
“As the AIA, we stand firmly with Federico and will consider every possible action to protect him.
“That also applies to any of our referees who are subjected to reprehensible or criminal acts,” he was adamant.
In addition to facing fierce backlash from fans, La Penna had to confront Juventus chief Giorgio Chiellini during the game.
Meanwhile, Inter president Beppe Marotta also criticized the Bianconeri hierarchy for their erratic behavior without compromising the relationship between the clubs.
Juve top management are pushing for this narrative but they act surprised when they get punished. Juve are in decline and will continue to do so despite spending a lot of money
i think the best way VAR is to be used, is to stop automatic VAR. Each captain gets 2 VAR reviews in a match. if the review is overturned they lose the review. the ‘fouled’ player asks his captain, who then asks the ref. now because the reviews are limited, idiotic use of the reviews are avoided, and if a review does not happens it’s the teams fault. not the refs.
Not a bad idea. But, in my opinion, VAR has only made the game worse. It hasn’t relieved controversy. If anything, it has increased it while also making the game more disjointed. We can’t even celebrate goals anymore because you never know what random infraction they may or may not decide to enforce.
Go back to accepting that it is a game played and officiated by humans and there will be mistakes.
Instead of VAR, let’s make the rules clearer to interpret and enforce. Amend the yellow/red card rule, make the penalty kick rules more logical. Punish diving and time-wasting consistently.
Instead of a red being expulsion, make it a forced-substitution with a ten minute delay (using one of the three substitution windows- if you don’t have one left, you play with 10 for the rest of the game). Take penalties from the spot of the foul. If a guy stays on the ground and stops the game, he has to stay in the sideline for 3 minutes.
VAR can be used after the game to enforce penalties like diving, time wasting, etc. Give a retroactive yellow for unsporting conduct if we really want to. But its use during the game ruins the rhythm and spirit of the competition and has added almost no clarity or improvement
Coach not captains because captains can have emotions and adrenaline. While the coach can strategically plan how to use their slots for VAR interventions. Same reason why some coach select their designated penalty kickers and it’s final wether the players like it or not
The gobi dont know how to lose. Such crying over a light foul. Their player tried to stop Sandro and even though it was possible to continue, he chose to take the foul. And a foul that stops such a dangerous counter is a yellow. What is it that they don’t understand. The whole media acting like Sandro fell without a contact. But when wirtz did the same – no one cried. We took it and moved on. That’s why in May Inter will be champions and gobi will struggle to get to any european competitions.