AC Milan have been no strangers to referee controversies this season, and Antonio Vitiello has looked into the matter.
Things are never simple involving Milan. Last season, it was managerial and player issues, and this season, it is a case of refereeing issues. Paulo Fonseca complained about officials during his tenure, so it is nothing new, really.
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However, this season, things seem to be more frequently chaotic. There was an issue with Alexis Saelemaekers, as well as the problems with Strahinja Pavlovic, this weekend. Past that, there was the issue with the Christopher Nkunku penalty decision.
Favouritism questioned
In a season where things have been regularly positive, there have been a lot of questions about the performances of the referees. However, Massimiliano Allegri has not tried to vilify them and spoke about this weekend’s game as an example, a different approach to Fonseca.
Today, Vitiello has looked into the matter for MilanNews and what has been happening.
“The rhetoric that AC Milan are favoured by the referees because that’s what they decided has been rife since the beginning of the season. But who decides? Let us know, because there’s been a political vacuum at the Rossoneri for some time now, and everyone knows it.
“It’s funny, though, that the message is being conveyed that AC Milan are favoured, when in fact it’s the exact opposite. Against Lazio, for example, it’s clear that there wasn’t a penalty awarded to the Biancocelesti; it was obvious to go to VAR, and in fact, the AIA confirmed it.
“However, the media is leaking that AC Milan were favoured; Lazio even declared a press blackout and posted a post saying “the images speak for themselves.” Indeed, if anyone had seen those images, they’d know there was no penalty.
“Pavlovic is facing away, already falling, and Romagnoli kicks from 30 centimetres. It’s truly absurd to even think about a penalty.
“Here, however, we’ve collected some incidents that went unnoticed but were actually serious errors, certainly not for a favoured Milan. In Lecce-Milan, a penalty was missed on Ricci; in Milan-Bologna, a truly sensational penalty was missed on Nkunku.
“In Atalanta-Milan, there was a red-card foul by Lookman on Fofana, but here too, everything went unnoticed. In Milan-Pisa, the away goal came from a foul on Gabbia when the ball was far away. Furthermore, against Milan, four penalties have been awarded in 13 games to date, not bad for a “favourite” team.
I mean, literally every club in the league could write this article. We remember the unlucky calls that went against us, but not the ones that fell our way. We’re near the top of the penalties awarded chart this year, we were again last year (we just missed 50% of them).
IMO, no need to further vilify referees and promote some conspiracy narrative without proof.
The problem is the rules, not the referees themselves. So often a touch of the arm, regardless of context, is given as a penalty that I don’t blame the VAR for interpreting it that way. I’m impressed the ref found a way not to award yet another stupid Serie A handball penalty, but let’s not pretend they don’t happen all the time. And VAR itself just forces slowed down frames and tiny details to be overexamined without factoring context or opinion into it at all. And because refs are being scrutinised like never before, they’re under crazy pressure for every decision, not surprising to see some overthink it for fear of the auditors.
There are 3 elements we have to consider, that apply not only to us, but many teams as well:
1- Some of these rules regarding penalties or fouls in general aren’t as clear cut as (a+b)2=a2+b2+2ab. When you say handball means the arm shouldn’t move towards the ball, or DOGSO or no foul if player isn’t involved in play,… you leave a lot of room for interpretation and, in this VAR era, also a lot of room for referee to change their minds and, as you said, overthink some stuff.
2- On the continuation of that, big teams often put pressure through referees through media, statments,… to make sure decisions go their ways more often than not. Think of how Florentino Pérez said how biased referees are in favour to FC Barcelona only for then the 2-2 goal of Real Madrid against Elche be awarded despite Vini colliding with the goalkeeper when he was going for the ball. Unfortunately, we outta put pressure and statments on the refeering bodies to avoid dodgy penalties or reds be counted against us.
3- And finally, but this is a bit of a conspiracy, while I don’t think referees hate us in particular, but direct rivals will benefit from us losing, so it’s not impossible to think one will pay a referee to make sure we don’t win our next game.
The referees are bad. That is the problem. Nobody is working against Milan or against any team in Serie A, they are just incompetent people without enough confidence to do this job. That is why VAR guys call referees to watch 100% non penalty situations. They are afraid they’ll make a mistake.
Prior to VAR, we could always say – poor referee decision, but it could be attributed to poor visibility or not paying attention or just human error whatsoever.
After VAR implementation it became obvious that it’s not only the factors above, but also the different interpretations of what we previously considered were clear rules.
With time and correct protocols things will get better, but the governing bodies are too slow.. E.g. there should always be at least 2-3 angles shown with real-time speed, and only then if necessary – single frames or slowed down recordings. Minor errors like goal kick or corner should be immediately overruled. Challenges by the opposing team should be an option. Playing time during VAR interventions will be slightly disrupted, but if working correctly refs will be only facilitators in the game, with no impact on the result.
I read that in addition to the one game suspension for DiPaolo, he’s being demoted to Serie B. But the ref received no disciplinary action. Does the same person/ association evaluate both the VAR officials and the refs? Seems like most of the blame is being laid on DiPaolo, but both officials made poor decisions