This weekend, AC Milan were involved in yet another interesting referee debacle, this time against them. Since the game, it has been a frequent talking point.
Milan have not been strangers to referee errors this season, and this weekend, the latest played out. In the dying moments of the game, Strahinja Pavlovic was the victim of a wrongful penalty call, and it seemed the Rossoneri could lose two well-fought points.
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However, after review, the penalty was cancelled, and the Rossoneri held onto the 1-0 lead, taking them to the top of the Serie A table.
OpenVAR: Milan-Lazio
In the days since, there has been a lot said about the decision, with a suspension even likely for the VAR. Now, as is the case every Tuesday, DAZN have released the OpenVAR programme (via MilanNews), and the Milan-Lazio incident is shown.
VAR: “Possible handball. Give me time, I’m reviewing. Let me see who hits it first. I get it, but the arm is up. Wait while I check, checking in progress. If it goes out, it could be punishable, but that arm looks super tight…
“No, it’s a bit wide. And the ball is going there. So wait, there’s a possible handball, so I have to check. He extends his elbow, and he makes a little movement. I recommend an OFR [On-Field Review] for a possible penalty.”
Collu goes to the monitor and – referring to the Milan bench – says: “Gentlemen, I don’t control things like that. Mister, everyone over there.”
Allegri: “Every time you referee…”
Collu pulls out the red card: “Off.”
Meanwhile, VAR is still reviewing the incident: “It’s a shot on goal, and he extends his elbow.”
Collu sends the players away: “I still have to check. Romagnoli, will you get your bench back, please? Everyone, sit down. Go to the bench. Come on, everyone inside, I have to check. Everyone, sit down.”
The referee comes to the monitor.
VAR: “I’ll show you.”
Collu: “He blocks it with his elbow, wait a minute. But there’s a foul by Marusic who holds him back first.”
VAR: “I’ll show you the whole dynamic.”
Collu: “Marusic holds him back before the handball. Show me the timing of Marusic holding him back.”
VAR: “Do you want to see Marusic?”
Collu: “Perfect, the shirt is pulled. I’m calling a foul for the defence.”
VAR: “It’s your decision.”
Collu: “Ok, I’ll explain that there is a handball, but there is a foul before.”
VAR: “He’s [Marusic] in front of him [Pavlovic] in my opinion. In any case, it’s his choice.”
VAR referee should be banned from football forever. He is trying to convince him completely falsely. If you are so bad there is no place for you in football. I don’t think he did it on purpose against Milan, he is just a loser that shouldn’t make any decisions, anywhere, ever.
Trying to false decisions
Right, I can’t stand VAR in football, but hopefully this should clear up some of the idiotic takes about conspiracies.
VAR dude spots a possible handball – it shouldn’t be, but that’s the rules as applied in Italy, not his fault the rules are stupid – calls the ref over, then they spot the other infringement (IMO, also not significant enough to really be a foul) and relay that.
In the end, two wrongs sort of make a right. Just would have been better if no-one had said anything. It’s also not VAR’s fault that the players and managements refused to let them do their job. Just would be better without it.
Fully agree with your take on this.
Also think it shouldn’t have been a pen or a foul.
But I can understand why they both thought it needed a closer look. Pavlovic elbow was slightly away from his body but it was all a natural movement given the dual with Marusic.
Not their fault that the players and team officials had meltdown before the OFR.
Really should shut down VAR for a while or at least severely reduce its power. It shouldn’t be able to try to convince the ref of anything. It should only be there to point out clear and obvious errors made by the ref. If the ref got a good look at it and says no, the VAR doesn’t get to intervene. The NFL does a pretty good job at it. The coaches should also be able to ask for a review and maybe lose a sub if they lose the review.
Do theses ldiots not understand what “clear and obvious means? There is nothing about this that would come close to that standard that you would suggest the referee to take another look. If it’s questionable at all, which this clearly is even by the most favorable standard, then you do not recommend the ref take another look. VAR should not be making recommendation on questionable calls. There is no point in having VAR used in this way. It was intended to remove human error but if you still have ldiot humans controlling it, it does more harm than good.
If you guys watch the replay again Marusic began holding Pav’s shirt way before he got around him or trying to get around him. He literally grabbed it as soon as Pav was near him, then Pav had to go try to block Romagnoli’s shit by which time he was already been impeded for a few seconds. Such things make the difference. A half a second is a yard and a half when sprinting, that’s easily a blocked shot by your foot instead of struggling to go around your man.
If you guys watch the replay again Marusic began holding Pav’s shirt way before he got around him or trying to get around him. He literally grabbed it as soon as Pav was near him, then Pav had to go try to block Romagnoli’s shot by which time he had already been impeded for a few seconds. Such things make the difference. A half a second is a yard and a half when sprinting, that’s easily a blocked shot by your foot instead of struggling to go around your man
In my humble opinion neither is a foul. The “hold” on Pavlovic is nothing (you see tons of these during corners) and there is no handball. Pavlovic isn’t moving do block the ball with his elbow, and this was the final conclusion of the authorities post match. Both referees should be sent for re-training and a spell in Serie B, at least.
So the ref actually got it right on his first decision which was awarding a corner kick to Lazio. He should have stuck to his first intuition.
Saying “Perfect, the shirt is pulled. I’m calling a foul for the defence” sound a bit odd, even if he probably did not mean it that way. Maybe perfect was a reference to the right clip of the tussle between Marusic and Pavlovic
I think that was a good way out for him to use. He didn’t want to call a handball on that but because the VAR told him there was a handball he used the foul as a way out of it. He got it right the first time on the pitch and should never have been told by VAR to take another look.
End Result Pavlovic, I am sorry he improved but these shoes are 2 sizes too big for him. We need to replace him before he costs us the title. Last game it was a penalty which was his clumsy mistake, now again last minute clumsy mistake. We need a better defender, sell him while his value is high due to some Milan play time. Hell I think we may have better players in Futuro that could be promoted