Team Talk

Cobolli demands foreign refs
Sunday 24 February, 2008

Juventus President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli demands a clampdown on poor referees, even if it means bringing officials in from overseas.

The Turin giants were livid after a 2-1 defeat away to Reggina last night, in which they appeared to be denied at least two clear penalties with another two dubious incidents.

“It’s the same thing that happened at Napoli,” said the patron, referring to a 3-1 defeat at the San Paolo earlier this season with similarly debatable decisions.

“Juve will not pass judgment on referees, but the Federation must look at its conscience and take action. Mistakes can happen, but not repeatedly.

“Juventus won on the pitch here and deserved the three points. I cannot complain about the performance of my players or Coach. In my view, the referee was not up to the task.”

Paolo Dondarini further infuriated the Bianconeri by awarding Reggina a stoppage-time penalty for Momo Sissoko’s clumsy clearance that struck Nicola Amoruso.

What really irritated them, though, was that at least two clear spot-kicks were earlier denied to Juve. Both were for fouls by Valdez, who climbed all over Pavel Nedved and then evidently tripped Sissoko.

“I don’t want to believe in bad faith, but the approach and judgment of the referee was evidently more in favour of one side than the other. It was so very obvious,” added Cobolli Gigli.

“Something has to be done to improve the impartiality of officials, as it was clear for everyone tonight what happened.

“I think the refereeing designator has to quickly provide officials with the technological advantages that they desperately need, even if Sissoko’s penalty incident was a metre away from the referee, so all he needed was to use his eyes.”

Coach Claudio Ranieri hinted that Juve were being made to pay for the Calciopoli scandal, but the President saw a bigger picture.

“I absolutely do not believe in a plot against Juventus, otherwise I would not be here doing this job. It’s the quality of the referees that is much lower than it needs to be. I never wanted foreign referees in Serie A, but at this point it might be the solution.

“Many clubs have been penalised by poor decision-making, not just Juve. Of course, some clubs were penalised less than others.”

The reference was obviously to Inter, who have been on the end of a string of favourable decisions this term.

*channel4