Referee Ermanno Feliciani has received criticism for his refereeing in yesterday’s Serie A opening day draw between Genoa and Inter Milan.
Today’s print edition of Rome-based newspaper Corriere dello Sport, via FCInterNews, argue that the 33-year-old was “bailed out by VAR” in the 2-2 draw.
In the end, refereeing controversy was not a big factor in yesterday’s match at the Marassi.
However, the reason for that was VAR.
The video assistant had to intervene on several occasions to clean up messes on the pitch.
And had the VAR not been there. Refereeing decisions would certainly have played more of a role in the outcome of the match.
Firstly, on-pitch referee Feliciani made the decision to award a penalty to Inter for contact between Nerazzurri striker Marcus Thuram and Genoa midfielder Milan Badelj.
This was in spite of the fact that Badelj had won the ball. And it had actually been Thuram who’d initiated the contact.
Feliciani had a fairly clear view of the incident. However, he got his decision wrong and needed the advice of VAR to have a second look.
Then, in stoppage time, Feliciani failed to spot what seemed to be a fairly clear handball by Inter defender Yann Bisseck.
Once again VAR advised the official to have another look at the incident on the monitor.
But in the view of the Corriere. It is a problem if the on-pitch referee is getting decisions of that nature wrong. Even if VAR ends up correcting them.
The newspaper also argues that Feliciani should have shown more yellow cards.
Heavy fouls by Francesco Acerbi and Denzel Dumfries on Genoa striker Vitinha are examples of incidents that the Corriere gives where the referee should have been quicker to go to his pocket.
