Marelli on the denied penalty: “On Viery-Thuram it was a very obvious mistake, Fabbri should have intervened”

At the end of Inter–Fiorentina, which ended 2-1, Marelli analyzed the main refereeing incidents of the match on Dazn’s microphones, focusing in particular on situations involving Thuram.

The main point of attention concerns the contact between Viery and Thuram. “This episode should catch our attention: it’s a clear penalty, Thuram jumps over Viery right in front of the referee, Viery has a resigned attitude, he knows he committed a foul. This is a clear penalty, Mariani was in control, we often say that if a referee sees an incident there’s no need for VAR intervention, but this is a 100% penalty, the VAR must intervene,” said Marelli.

Marelli then added: “We already saw this in Lazio-Parma with Frattesi, a high threshold is fine but you shouldn’t overdo it. The VAR not intervening is a mistake, Mariani’s performance was positive except for this episode, mistakes happen. What puzzles me is that the VAR sees and doesn’t intervene, I’d like to understand why Fabbri didn’t intervene, it’s a very obvious mistake, this episode cannot be overlooked.”

The judgment was different regarding the contact between Valdepenas and Thuram, which led to the penalty that was then converted: “Watch Valdepenas: although Thuram also uses his hands and both are holding each other, Valdepenas loses contact with the ball and prevents Thuram from going for it. The holding is a clear foul, the yellow card is correct for unsporting behavior due to prolonged holding.”

On the contact between Dragusin and Thuram, Marelli stated: “The foul ends before the corner kick is taken. If the referee had called a penalty and the holding was there, it would have been revoked because the ball was not in play.”