The referee in charge of the action replay at the Mediaset studios, after the Inter-Udinese game, the Italian Cup eighth of final, former referee Graziano Cesari reviewed the penalty at first awarded by Massimi to the Nerazzurri, then revoked after the VAR check. The incident occurred while the score was still 0-0, and it involved a hand touch by Kabasele on Arnautovic’s shot.
For Cesari, the referee’s decision was correct, but he didn’t miss the chance to critique the rule determining handballs. The former referee complained about a wide discrepancy in judgement on very similar incidents, referring to the penalty not given to Cagliari, against Atalanta, for an apparent handball by Kossounou.
Here are his words:
ACTION REPLAY – Called to the VAR, he re-watched the footage and changed his mind. It took him hardly any time to override his decision. He thought it was Kabasele’s left arm, raised high in an unnatural position, to be penalized. But it wasn’t: it was the right arm that was raised and the ball got lost, apparently his body had hit the ball. In my opinion, he was right in changing his decision.
CAGLIARI-ATALANTA PENALTY – There was a lot of discussion around that. The rebound on Deiola’s cross should not be taken into account and the Atalanta player’s arm was raised high and away from the body in a totally unnatural way. It is a very complicated rule, we will never be able to understand it fully, because the inconsistency is rather evident, in just a few days. It only makes everything harder to understand.
