Italian football once again exploded with a sensational episode. The 25th round match between Inter and Juventus ended with a score of 3:2 in favor of the Milanese, but the main thing after the match was not the goals but the referee's decisions.
The head coach of the Uzbekistan national team, former defender of the Italian national team, Fabio Cannavaro, also expressed his opinion on this topic. His position is clear: he opposes calls to exclude Alessandro Bastoni from the national team for this incident.
How did the episode go?
In the 42nd minute, Juventus defender Per Calulu made a dangerous move towards Bastoni after an unclear pass from Fabio Miretti. At that moment, the Inter player “showed” that there was contact and fell to the ground. Referee Federico La Penna showed Kalulu a second yellow card - as a result, Juventus was one player down.
The most discussed point was Bastoni's reaction: the fact that he did not hide his joy when he saw his opponent being sent off, which also increased the anger of the fans.
Cannavaro's answer - “This happens in football”
Cannavaro, however, emphasized that it is necessary to think about the system rather than emotions:
“Should Bastoni be removed from the national team? Why shouldn't he go there? Such situations have always happened and will happen, it's part of football,” he said, giving a cold assessment of the situation.
Yes, the simulation is unpleasant. But according to Cannavaro, the way to punish this is not to “cut the player off”, but to use a mechanism that can correct the mistake in time.
The main problem is that VAR exists, but its hands are tied
Cannavaro strongly emphasized the issue of VAR at this point: since the technology exists, it should always be used. According to him, although it is possible to check some controversial episodes, the practical protocol does not fully allow for this.
“Since VAR exists, it is necessary to use it, regardless of who made the mistake… We need to change the protocol now, not next year,” Cannavaro put forward the idea.
According to him, delayed changes increase the number of mistakes that can affect the results of the championship. Simply put: by the time we say “we will fix it later,” the tournament schedule will have already changed.
What does this mean?
Cannavaro is against quick and harsh decisions like “let’s remove Bastogne”: he believes that the situation should be resolved by the system, not the person. If the VAR protocol is revised, such conflicts may decrease in the future.
Football is not without drama, but it is important that the drama does not turn the championship into a "script". Now the most interesting thing is whether these calls will really give impetus to the change of the protocol or whether everything will go back to the "later" folder.
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