Refereeing designator Nicola Rizzoli hit back at suggestions from a former FIGC prosecutor that VAR clips ‘disappeared’ from Inter-Juventus. ‘It never existed.’ The controversy erupted when former FIGC prosecutor Giuseppe Pecoraro revealed he had requested the audio of the conversation between referee Daniele Orsato and the VAR for Miralem Pjanic’s potential second yellow card offence, but that it was ‘missing’ from the file they received.
“It’s important to clarify here and not create further confusion,” replied refereeing designator Rizzoli on Sky Sport Italia today. “The protocol states that only certain conversations are recorded and those are made not by the referees, but by the Lega technical provider, who put this clip at the disposal of the AIA (Italian Referees’ Association) if they want to use it for instructional purposes. Only five or six of those per game go online, which we can then download for use in teaching referees about incidents. These clips are also sent to the IFAB and are not in possession of the AIA. Pecoraro requested the recording of the entire match, but that simply doesn’t exist for any Serie A game. Nobody has it in their possession, it never existed and so could not have been provided. The only ones that were recorded, as per protocol, were around the straight red card and the penalty. A yellow card, whether it is a second or a first, is not recorded for VAR. We tried to request the recording, but it simply was never made in the first place.” Inter and Scudetto contenders Napoli complained after that 3-2 Juventus victory in 2018 that Miralem Pjanic should’ve received a second yellow card for his foul. “In dubious situations, the VAR will communicate with the referee and say ‘stop play’ until they’ve checked it,” continued Rizzoli. “The moment he then says ‘silent check complete, you can resume,’ there is nothing more to be said. In this case, he didn’t need to say whether it was a yellow card, the VAR could only state it was not a straight red. In any case, going back to that incident, the correct decision was not made by the referee. That was confirmed by the fact the referee was not designated in the following week.”