Thus the referee designator at Open Var on Dazn: “Davis’ goal is legal. The rule on immediacy must be clarified”
“If you don’t believe in the good faith of the referees, I’m ready to leave tomorrow morning.” At Open Var, on Dazn, the designer Gianluca Rocchi thus responds to the insinuations following Udinese-Lazio, a match in which Davis’ goal was validated due to lapsed immediacy. “They are two touches of the hand – says Rocchi specifically about the match – In the first the quality of the touch in midfield must only be evaluated and it is not punishable. Then Davis’ touch must also be considered: immediacy is something immediate, a flick of the hand, control and shot; this is it. You don’t have a precise number of seconds but this situation of Davis is not immediacy. It is a rule which must be clarified, I say this, because we must give the most precise answers possible. The term ‘immediacy’ puts us in a bit of difficulty, but I can’t tell the boys that they made a mistake, even if with difficulty and this shows the care they put into it. We will shoot this clip at the Ifab: I am not the law, but I want to confront it. If we read the rules we understand immediacy but as a football fan you can’t help but cancel a goal like that where there is a touch of the arm, but the rules are clear.”
Davis’ goal
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Then, Lazio’s protest: “I won’t go into political arguments, but I said to both Simonelli and Gravina and I repeat this, if anyone doesn’t believe in our good faith I’ll leave tomorrow morning – continues the designer – I’ll come here and play our audio, if anyone thinks that we’re not intellectually honest eh… Our objective is to make as few mistakes as possible, then it happens and you see how annoyed I am… when these mistakes happen. But I look at the regulations, I have to understand if the decision is correct and that decision is correct, then whether one wants to believe it or not, well, that’s not my problem.” During Lazio-Udinese, here is the “report” from the VAR room: “He kicks it at him and it’s not punishable. We evaluate that he’s always the one who plays, it’s not exactly immediate, he does a dribble here, but it’s not immediate. We confirm. Regular goal.” As for Nico Paz’s blow in Lecce-Como (“For me it’s a foul” in the VAR room, “For me he just takes a position” says referee Marchetti), here’s Rocchi: “These situations shouldn’t be sanctioned, things like that are either a foul and yellow or it’s nothing”.