The admission of Gianluca Rocchi, "we gave penalties. Now we only boo the right ones"

“Penalties? They have been given, but now we only whistle the right ones. Var on call? Open to new things, but better targeted interventions from Lissone”. Thus Gianluca Rocchi, designator of the Serie A referees, in an interview granted to the Sport editorial team of Gr Rai, broadcast this evening on Radio1, within “Zona Cesarini”.

Rocchi took stock of 2024 and his work in recent years, touching on the topics recently subject to controversy. He began by expressing gratitude for the support received from the managers who followed one another during his mandate, underlining the importance of the relationship with the new president of The Hague, Carlo Zappi: “I thank president Zappi, who immediately renewed his confidence in the my work. This shows that the path taken is appreciated. I have always had the opportunity to work independently, an indispensable condition to carry out my role”.

The designator described 2024 as “a very complicated year. This work, which involves 152 people, leaves no room to take a breather; it is certainly a complex and demanding job, that of the designator, almost never praised and often criticized. Even the small moments of satisfaction often escapes us, but a role of such great responsibility does not allow for distractions.”

Among the many reasons for discussion, Rocchi focused on the so-called “penalties”. “It’s clear that it’s those penalties that we are trying to fight: we actually had a bad day – admitted Rocchi -, the seventh, where we gave 9 and some truly inappropriate ones; However, especially in the last few days, we have returned to giving the right ones. The important thing is to give a penalty when there is something important, because it can decide the result.” “I always tell my referees that when your gut tells you penalty, in 98% of cases it is a penalty. For example, in Cagliari-Atalanta one wasn’t given, because the referee let himself be carried away, not by his gut, but by reasoning about the rebound: if he had followed his gut, he would have awarded the penalty.”

As for the VAR, “it must only be used for clear and serious episodes. We must not do slow motion. We cannot respond to the VAR when called, as We are always open to any changes and news. It is clear that the call removes a lot of responsibility, placing the responsibility for the call on the club or the coach on duty. I believe that instead we must work trying to build young people in front of the monitor, who are capable of deciding, of choosing when to intervene or not, that is, when an episode is clearly wrong or not. We are doing a good job overall. We have started collaborations with the Coaches Association and the Footballers’ Association to help our referees better understand the dynamics of the game. A referee must have a great knowledge of football, not just the rules.”