strong disappointment about the referees case

Lazio expresses strong disappointment for the words of the president of the Lega Serie Areiterating that there has never been any attack on the reputation of the refereeing class on the part of the club. After the pec with which the Biancoceleste club had asked for an intervention from the League on refereeing errors and the subsequent response from president Ezio Maria Simonelli, who had called for the need for respect towards referees, a “strong disappointment” filtered through from sources close to Lazio, also shared by president Claudio Lotito. According to the biancoceleste environment, the letter sent by the club would have been clear in content and tone, without ever discrediting or questioning the honorability of the refereeing class, nor evoking plots or occult designs.

Lazio and the referees case: what’s happening

Lazio’s position, the same sources explain, concerns exclusively the lack of uniformity in the application of arbitration decisions and the lack of homogeneity of some judgments, elements that would have repercussions on the overall regularity of the system. A concern that would not be isolated, but also shared by other clubs, as demonstrated by recent episodes at the international level, including those that emerged during the Super Cup played in Saudi Arabia. In Lazio circles, it was also not appreciated that a formal and reasoned request was followed by a public response deemed inconsistent with the institutional role of the president of the League, called – according to the club – to guarantee balance and credibility of the entire system, rather than representing a single component. The feeling is that the system is progressively losing credibility and that tools such as Open VAR, considered devoid of real transparency and contradictory, do not constitute an adequate structural solution, especially in the face of very important sporting and economic interests. Should this remain the line, concludes the position filtering through Formello, Lazio will evaluate with a sense of responsibility the possibility of taking its requests to other institutional bodies, considering the critical issues reported evident, documentable and far from isolated.