Italian FA suspends two referees after officiating blunders

Inter coach clearly disappointed with referee

Italian football is again caught in controversy, as this time two of its most famous clubs, AC Milan and Inter Milan were at the receiving end of some horrible referring against ACF Fiorentina & Atlanta in Florence and Milan respectively at the weekend. The referees in the eye of the storm are Paolo Tagliavento & Andrea Gervasoni, who have been suspended for 1 month each after mistakes in the respective matches they were officiating.

Tagliavento, who was officiating the AC Milan-Fiorentina game, was the center of attention as he awarded two very soft penalties to Fiorentina, to say the least. On top of it, in the dying moments of the match, the referee decided against giving a penalty to Milan to the ire of AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri, when a corner took a deflection from Pazzini’s head and hit a Fiorentina defender on his hand; to cap it all, the referee was standing hardly 10 feet away from the offender.

The Inter-Atlanta game was pretty much the same case as the referee this time was Gervasoni. The furious Inter coach, Andrea Stramaccioni, told the club’s website: “The referee greatly influenced the outcome. He said it was for a handball by (Walter) Samuel.

“It turned out to be something that only the referee saw. I think Gervasoni, acting independently and on his own, influenced the outcome by seeing something that wasn’t there. Something that never took place.”

“We spent five minutes trying to understand what had happened. At one point on the bench we thought it was a foul by (Andrea) Ranocchia, but then the referee said it was a handball by Samuel.”

“You cannot do this. You simply cannot. We already have our problems but… you cannot award a penalty like that.”

“It’s incredible to see a penalty like that given. We don’t have the strength to overcome these kind of episodes.”

Club president Massimo Moratti believes there is an anti-Inter conspiracy, adding, “I haven’t changed my mind, no matter whether I am angry or not,” he told reporters on Monday. “I don’t think I have to explain things any clearer, you just have to look at how this championship is evolving, especially in terms of us.”

“When there is a desire to hit you then you get hit. When there are doubts over a Tommaso Rocchi penalty, then it is not given.”

“When there are doubts about a non-penalty then it is awarded against us. We haven’t been given a penalty for 21 games.”

Moratti did not stop there, as he added further, “When in doubt they penalize us.”

Source: Gazetta dello Sport.