The referee designator, who spoke to Sky, then also talks about the relationship with the VAR (“in the end the final decision is up to whoever is on the pitch”) and on the topic of effective time: “In my opinion we play more now, but we still need to speed up the pace”
The derby one step away. A totally Milanese derby considering that Simone Sozza – belonging to the Seregno section – is a native of Milan. “He is a referee who is also growing at an international level, he gives great guarantees – the referee Gianluca Rocchi tells Sky -. The fact that he is from Milan does not concern us, I believe that this taboo has been overcome: I must say thanks to the clubs who have never discussed his provenance, now they only want quality. There is a bit of hindsight but I think it is a more folkloristic discussion. Zufferli, who is very young, refereed the Turin derby and that match was approached in a correct, the teams played football and the referee made a good impression also thanks to the players, who allowed him to direct well without pressure”.
var and simulations
—
For the designator only field and technical issues. What happens within the association is something in progress; what happens on the pitch must also be improved. “The person who makes the final decision is the on-field referee but we have to use VAR as best we can and we made mistakes that we could have easily avoided – continues Rocchi -. The positive thing is that we are developing a group of boys, the youngsters are also playing great games on Serie A pitches. I’m… worried about having to work on this aspect but on the other hand I’m motivated because the boys are growing and responding well to stress. The simulations? I underlined the fact of not accentuating situations involving possible blows to the face, because this refereeing rigidity arises to protect the players warning footballers who hits the opponent’s face with an arm or elbow is created to protect them, but if it is used to warn a colleague, it is a boomerang especially for the players, because you are warning a colleague for something that does not exist. Simulation is something that is not tolerated by anyone who loves this sport, against the system, you are not just screwing the referee and you are against the football system: I hope they understand the sensitivity of the topic and that they don’t always turn the problem around. referee, maybe the referee made a mistake, but let’s try to be collaborative. I prefer to be safe than sorry.”
ACTUAL TIME
—
Finally, the hypothesis of effective time which naturally concerns the Ifab, the body that legislates. “The actual time is not dictated by the referees, obviously in recent years many things have been added such as VAR and five substitutions and then the announcement, so… In my opinion we play more, and most likely the physical effort is higher. It is a decreasing trend in recent years, but it is a discussion that we should address with the teams themselves, even if we referees could do something naturally. I am asking us to be quick in restarting the game, the good referee is the one who makes the game play as soon as possible, we must be the ones who speed up the pace. Our mental laziness led us to play games with a bit too much downtime.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED