The Atalanta penalty in tonight’s 1-1 draw with Milan has caused debate and controversy, but refereeing trainer Antonio Damato insists ‘this is precisely where VAR becomes so valuable.’
Olivier Giroud had mistimed his clearance on an Atalanta corner and accidentally caught Emil Holm on the arm and chest.
Holm was facing away from goal and went down clutching his face, drawing further attention to the contact, even though the boot never got higher than his chest.
Referee Daniele Orsato was called back for a VAR On-Field Review and awarded the spot-kick, which Teun Koopmeiners converted for a 1-1 draw.
The decision has caused controversy, with multiple pundits on DAZN, Sky Sport Italia and CBS Sports arguing this is “not enough” to warrant a penalty, as the intensity of the contact and the context of Holm’s movement all suggested there was very little danger.
Refereeing trainer and former official Antonio Damato was on DAZN this evening and gave the official view of the situation.
“We consider it the correct decision from VAR, because the Atalanta player attempts to play the ball and he is prevented doing so by a clear kick from his opponent.
“In terms of the rules, it is a clear foul that is to be punished with a penalty. We maintain the VAR Irrati was correct to recall the referee for an On-Field Review.
“It was a pretty clear dynamic, it did not require much analysis from the referee once he saw the footage. This is precisely the kind of situation where VAR is so valuable, because on the field these incidents are very difficult to spot.
“Substantially, this is a clear foul, it had to be penalised.”
Even Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini struggled to defend the award to his own team.
“We’ve seen a lot of these VAR penalties this season. I have never been in favour of this type of penalty, but they have become frequent,” Gasperini told DAZN.
“People say it is modern football, favoured also by your television coverage that tends to enjoy focusing on this sort of thing. It is really not something people of my generation recognise, but there you go.”
DAZN refereeing expert Luca Marelli called the situation “borderline” in his live commentary, but ultimately warned “this situation is in the code and will always lead to a penalty. The intensity of the contact, whether Holm tried to make it look worse, all of that is irrelevant.”
Sky Sport Italia pundits describe this particular approach to penalties as “whoever gets there first is right,” as we have seen numerous spot-kicks for instance with two players going for the same ball, if one gets there a fraction of a second first and his foot is kicked rather than the ball, then a penalty is given.
However, it is not entirely clear if this type of situation is ‘in the code’ only in Italy and not by IFAB in general, as there was an incident during the Europa League play-off between Roma and Feyenoord when Stephan El Shaarawy had the back of his ankle kicked, but VAR did not intervene.
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