Napoli v Pisa, VAR controversy: Rocchi admits mistake over denied penalty | OneFootball

Napoli’s 3-2 victory over Pisa continues to stir controversy, not so much for the spectacle on the pitch as for the refereeing decisions that influenced the evening. The front pages of the sports newspapers have completely failed the referee’s performance, deemed inadequate especially in relation to a crucial episode: the missed penalty awarded to the visitors for a contact between De Bruyne and Leris.

Napoli-Pisa, endless controversy: VAR is not enough, Rocchi explains the mistake

During the Open Var broadcast, the audio between the referee and the VAR room was aired, offering a transparent picture of how the situation was managed. However, it was the refereeing chief Gianluca Rocchi himself who stepped in to clarify things, admitting to the streaming broadcaster’s microphones: “De Bruyne-Leris and the supporting arm? It’s not punishable. You get fooled by the slow motion, the wrong camera is used.” A technical analysis that seemed to play down the incident, but Rocchi then doubled down, explaining that the final assessment was wrong: “In real time it’s accidental and cannot be punished, but if Pisa had scored it would have had to be disallowed. The step on foot was punishable and the procedure was correct, not the evaluation. The right decision was to award the penalty.”

Words that amount to a failing grade for the referee and his assistants, unable to correctly interpret the most debated episode of the match. A clear stance that can only fuel the debate: if the penalty had been awarded, the momentum of the game could have changed dramatically. Napoli still enjoy three valuable points, but the post-match is overshadowed by refereeing controversy.

Andrea Alati

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.