In the latest episode of the program Le Iene, it was back to soccer: referees came under scrutiny, with one match director deciding to denounce some alleged anomalies in the system.
Filippo Roma, envoy of Le Iene and author of the report on the scandal in the refereeing world, spoke to the microphones of TvPlay, explaining how his investigation came about and what the most serious facts are, because they are more obvious, than anything that has been aired.
“I was contacted between late November and early December by the referee who spoke,” Roma explained. “That’s because I occasionally cover soccer on Hyenas. They are very close to taking legal action because this group of people no longer feel protected by the refereeing world. The system is no longer based on merit but only on politics. They no longer work peacefully.”
The AIA (Italian Referees Association) is threatening to sue Rome and Le Iene. After the report, with.the active referee who denounced serious anomalies in the system, came in fact the response of the Italian Referees Association. The AIA, through a statement sent to Ansa rejected all the accusations.
The report was found to be untrue: “these are inferences that have no concrete basis.” The association has then and confirm full confidence in the work of designator Gianluca Rocchi: “We believe that instead there is absolute insubstantiality of the accusations launched,” reads the statement.
Referee scandal after Iene’s report: “That’s why the witness did not denounce “
It would be unclear to many why the interviewed referee would not formally denounce the situation but delegate the controversy to the TV space. “I say this from experience, it’s a human thing not to show up. Other referees have also contacted us. Several referees from different categories have confirmed to us the testimony that was aired. “
“I don’t know if there will be a next episode this week, but we will continue to work,” Rome explained. After that, the Iene correspondent focused on the issue related to VAR.
“What kind of complaint do these referees want to make? From what we have understood is that in the refereeing world there is an internal struggle between two factions and VAR is the battleground. If then this internal struggle between referees spills over into the matches, distorting them, this is a big problem. I assure that we published all the material we had. We couldn’t do otherwise. “