Referees’ association confirms ‘mistakes’ Monza-Milan with disallowed goal

An official representative of the referees’ association confirms that there were ‘two errors’ in the decision to disallow Monza’s goal in a 1-0 defeat to Milan.

The incident caused a lot of controversy on Saturday evening, when Ermanno Feliciani blew the whistle for Warren Bondo’s fight with Theo Hernandez, just a few seconds into their meeting, after Dany Mota Carvalho had scored the goal.

FLORENCE, ITALY – JANUARY 04: Ermanno Feliciani referee gestures during the Serie A match between ACF Fiorentina and AC Monza at Stadio Artemio Franchi on January 4, 2023 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

On Sunday evening, retired referee and current member of the referees association Elenito Di Liberatore was a guest on the DAZN show Open VAR to explain what happened at the U-Power Stadium.

“There are two mistakes here that were made by the referee. The first is that the contact was too light to warrant a violation, and the second was the timing.” said Di Liberatore.

“If the referee had blown the foul at that moment it would have been a weak free kick, but that’s all. Because he allowed the move to continue and then gave the free kick, we created this situation. It would have been appropriate to give the error at the beginning of the move.”

The audio of the VAR review was also broadcast on the programme, in which they said that Bondo had pulled Theo Hernandez’s shirt and therefore they would not overrule the decision made by the referee on the pitch.

“The contact was light, so obviously VAR can’t really intervene because there’s still contact, and it can’t be considered a clear and obvious foul. The referee must be given discretion over these matters on the field.

“The mistakes were made in giving the foul in the first place and especially in the timing of the whistle.”

In general, referees are encouraged to wait until the move is completed before blowing the whistle if a situation is questionable or borderline so that VAR can intervene.

If the referee had allowed the move to play and not blown the whistle, VAR would not have intervened to have Monza’s goal disallowed because of that small tug on the shirt of two players who were not involved in the build-up.