AC Milan have not had the rub of the green with a lot of the decisions this season and the latest referee that has been designated to one of their games has caused a stir.
Calciomercato.com reports how the referee assigned to Milan-Bologna is Livio Marinelli, a man who has taken charge of only 10 Serie A games in his early career and only 15 in total, when considering the 4 he took charge of in Serie B and 1 in the Coppa Italia.
Once again the Rossoneri have had a crucial game entrusted to an inexperienced referee, and Milan are they only team in the top four that Marinelli has not refereed a game involving.
Paolo Maldini complained after the draw against Udinese which ended amid controversy over Udogie’s handball goal, suggesting that Matteo Marchetti – who had refereed five Serie A matches before – should not be involved in such a huge game.
The other episode that infuriated the Rossoneri was the one against Spezia, complete with an apology from the AIA after Junior Messias scored a late winner that was ruled out because an advantage wasn’t played.
There are other incidents too influenced by inexperienced officials such as Di Paolo calling Massa over to look at the VAR screen and then deducing that Giroud was offside after Kessie’s equaliser against Napoli. Prontera was the referee and Di Paolo was VAR chief again when Milan went two goals after just over 20 minutes against Verona after a penalty was given despite Romagnoli being trodden on by Kalinic.
In short, it is another big game and another designation that could lead to controversy as Marinelli – a referee with 10 games in Serie A so far – will run out at San Siro on Monday.
