The President of Inter, Giuseppe Marotta, spoke today on the occasion of the Lega Serie A Assembly. During his speech, he talked about Inter’s current situation and commented on recent refereeing decisions. Below are his statements:

MOMENT – “We are in a particular moment of the season, in which right now we are deservedly first in the standings with a six-point lead, so it is a result that perhaps we could not have predicted. And we are semifinalists in the Coppa Italia. So I would say we have achieved two out of three objectives. In the Champions League we could have done better, but there are also opponents and sometimes they are unpredictable, underestimated opponents, so clearly we were eliminated. As for the league, I say that there are eight games left, we basically have a two-game advantage. We are in a situation, if you analyze it well, of difficulty, of regression perhaps linked to injuries, perhaps to a fatigue that is due to a series of matches, but this is a characteristic that is also found in our opponents, so I am not here to look for excuses, except to say that we will fight until the end, with the calm and also the awareness of still being six points ahead of the second place team.”

SUPPORT – “We will continue to confront each other and do what we have done. The coach and his staff will analyze the situation in the best possible way. I specify, however, that we are not in a situation of psychodrama, we are in a moment of difficulty, as sport shows us. For me, it was unthinkable to be here today, eight games from the end, with a six-point lead. We must not rest on our laurels, we know that difficulties exist. In some circumstances, it is easier to be the hunter than the hare because clearly in this case the strength of the opponents multiplies and we must be better at facing this period of transition. I have to be optimistic, I know the team is a strong team, I know we are dealing with serious professionals who do their job in the best way, and now it is a matter of finding the path that we have momentarily lost.”

REFEREEING DECISIONS – “Today we are faced with a scenario, a plethora of technical experts, VAR experts, and especially this morning many pundits, additional analysts have confirmed that it was a penalty. I will limit myself to saying this. We are not playing the victims, I say that, and this is an important concept for me, there must be uniformity in evaluations, the protocol today is, in my opinion, not being used in a homogeneous way. I am for uniformity of judgment, for the centrality of the referee and I believe that certain episodes are often interpreted in a very subjective way, too subjective compared to what should be objective evaluations that must be represented precisely by the use of technical tools, such as television images, such as VAR. Therefore, I truly hope that next season a homogeneous protocol can be created and that we can also reach a certain type of refereeing. Because, without controversy, there are referees who perhaps give no yellow cards and few whistles, others who give more yellow cards and more whistles. And so these are all evaluations that, I would say, must be analyzed for the good of football.”

MISTAKES – “I believe that during a league season there are always complaints from all clubs. I am not here to complain, I am here because you asked me to speak and I do so because there must be nothing non-transparent. I would say that over the year, the favors and the wrongs balance out and I do not want to hide behind this, it must not become an excuse and it must not be an excuse for our team. I hope that our fans will support us even more and our players must face everything knowing that around the corner there may be a refereeing error. So we must be stronger even than these mistakes.”

GHOSTS OF THE PAST – “I hope that there is no fear among the players. I believe that the mental aspect in today’s athlete is very important because the pressure exists. The modern player must be able to manage these difficulties as well.”