Lecce owner Saverio Sticchi Damiani has branded the disallowing of Piccoli’s 93rd-minute goal ‘diabolical’, claiming that the Video Assistant Referee went looking for an issue that wasn’t there.
Milan suffered another big blow to their Scudetto hopes against Lecce on Saturday afternoon as they threw away a commanding 2-0 half-time lead to draw 2-2 at the Stadio Via del Mare.
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The final sting looked like it had come with virtually the last kick of the game when Piccoli brought down a long ball and shot from about 30 yards out. His effort bent away from a wrong-footed Maignan and nestled inside the near post, sparking rapturous scenes, but it was disallowed for a handball.
Saverio Sticchi Damiani, the owner of Lecce, spoke during an interview with DAZN after the game to express his frustration at the VAR intervention.
“The VAR is used in a diabolical way like this. If you use the VAR to find the hair for Lecce you have to do it with the other teams too,” he said (via MilanNews).
“Every every time Lecce scores a goal we will look for a pest, you can always find a pest, you can’t deny it to anyone. I’m talking about the rule: if you want to find a detail, you can find it.
“VAR authorised to ruin football matches with this exasperated use. We play football for passion, not for business. Today’s use of VAR ruins the fairytale of football.”
They deserved to win. I think the sack is close, if we lose to Florentina (we might). The management might rethink if Pioli is the right person for this job.
Who, exactly, deserved to win? We deserved to win; could have been 6
He is kind of right to complain, let’s be honest. If hypothetically we reverse the situation, we would be mad with VAR as well.
It’s not a completely clear incident but let’s say, 80% it wasn’t a foul, 20% it was.
Soccer has always had this backwards.
If in doubt the logical and sensible call is play on, not to call a foul or to call offside.
Doubt or ambiguity should always favour the continuance of play, never blowing the whistle.
The rules are not there for themselves they set the boundaries within which a game is played.
Professional sport always stops because play is in or on the boundary.
Honestly, in soccer I think it’s corruption. It’s much harder to fix matches discretely if there are too many goals scored. I can honestly think of no other legitimate reason.
YOU, would be mad at VAR, not people who appreciate fairness
Agree with him.
VAR ruins the moment and it’s usually only for a technical interpretation of the rules, that’s not in the spirit of the contest as it occurs, and which only fans of the side the decision benefits agree with.
That’s ridiculous.. VAR is the only refereeing we see; it should be implemented even more, 🙄 “the moment “.. for f sake
How stupid is this.. I understand him in that, he was playing big us, and so emotions are high – especially if you “score” a late “winner”.. but not only did THIAW get his foot stomped on – a FOUL – but on the other end – the Giroud incident.. that was a handball by the Lecce player that he was shielding.. so take your pick.
Facts
Delusional stuff.
I’m a big supporter of VAR and case in point, Piccoli would have never had so much time on the ball if he hadn’t stomped on Thiaw (watch the replay, you can see him limping backwards).