Italian football has seen its fair share of controversial officiating. From the no-call for the bodycheck on Ronaldo in the ‘98 Derby d’Italia to the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, there’s a whole list of contentious events. When the announcement was made that Video Assistant Referee (VAR) would be coming to Serie A in the summer of 2017, it was seen as an innovative step forward by the league. 

Along with the Bundesliga, the Italians were one of the first to introduce VAR into Europe’s top five leagues. Through successful use, Serie A has the chance to set a precedence on World football. However, the system has hardly been free of controversy. Since the technology has now been in use for almost a season and a half, how has it worked and what can be improved? 

Video Assistant Referee can only be used under four circumstances: goals, penalties, red cards, and mistaken identity. The head referee is given instructions through his headset from a room of officials who are watching on TV screens. Then, the ref has the discretion to look at the play in question himself via a screen on the sideline before making his final decision. This process is clearly explained in a video made by FIFA.

A common misconception is that using the technology will automatically get every call correct. VAR is a tool to give the officials an extra look at the call in question; there will still be subjective calls in which people will disagree with the ref's decision. This is most evident regarding penalty decisions and possible handballs, where there is always room for personal judgment.

Despite the continuance of controversial calls on the Italian peninsula, the introduction of the technology has certainly been a step in the right direction. As with any new system, there are still some kinks that need to be worked out. One of the issues raised has been the length of time the review process takes. This is certainly a valid concern to raise as there have been several occasions where stoppages for VAR exceed well over 60 seconds. Even confirming if a goal is valid can take longer than expected. On the bright side, the average time for a review in the 2017-18 season deceased from an average of 1 minute 22 seconds in the first three rounds to just 31.5 seconds for the remainder of the season. 

Most importantly, the technology has done its most essential job quite efficiently: to get the call correct. The 2017-18 season saw referee errors decrease drastically, as well as yellow/red cards and protests compared to previous seasons. The Italian Football Federation’s report stated that in VAR’s inaugural season, the percentage of error on reviews was just 0.89 percent. Again, as some calls remain subjective to the referee’s opinion, there will remain human errors.

To understand how the use of the technology has improved, it is imperative to start with its first moments of action. VAR had a busy debut in the opening weekend of the 2017-18 season, being called into action six times. 

In the inaugural match, VAR awarded Fabio Maresca of Cagliari a penalty after taking an extra look at Alex Sandro’s tackle. Gigi Buffon managed to save Diego Farias’ shot from the spot, but it was a perfect introduction of how VAR should be used. Overall, the weekend brought mixed results as Torino were denied a go-ahead goal against Bologna when the referee had incorrectly whistled for offside before the ball hit the back of the net, not allowing a VAR review. 

VAR continued to make headlines throughout the season. Lazio boss Simone Inzaghi claimed in late December that VAR had already cost his side seven points. Fiorentina felt hard done in their match against Juventus as their awarded penalty was reversed for a dubious offside decision. Former Bologna coach Roberto Donadoni wasn’t afraid to voice his opinion that smaller teams don’t get calls: “Some penalties don’t get given to teams in eighth place or below. But they do for the teams above.” Entering the 2018-19 season, even Cristiano Ronaldo found himself at the mercy of VAR in his Serie A debut back in August. 

Most recently, VAR got it right in Milan’s last-gasp winner against Udinese during this past weekend. The linesman had raised his flag for an offside call early in a sequence of passes, which ultimately lead to an Alessio Romagnoli stoppage-time winner. A simple check with VAR assured the goal stood. Had the play been blown dead at the initial offside signal, the goal would have never occurred.

The use of the VAR technology system should continue to improve as it already has since implementation. Overall, most fans seem pleased with this addition to Italian calcio. However, no system is perfect and sports will never be without mistake. Perhaps there just is truly no way to remove controversy from the Italian game, but at least the correct decision is made with the help of VAR a vast majority of the time. 

Alessandro is a passionate fan of Italian calcio and the editor-in-chief of Get Italian Football News.