Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri hopes that VAR is abolished following his sides Europa League elimination to Porto. Sarri was speaking after Lazio’s 2-2 draw with Porto, a result that saw them eliminated from the competition on aggregate.
Asked about the award of a penalty for the away side, Sarri shared his opinion on the use of VAR for important decisions:
I have the same opinion as (Gian Piero) Gasperini. I hope the English fans are able to have it abolished! The referee on the pitch had the right impression: The striker on the pitch looks for a contact with Milinkovic-Savic’s leg. It’s not Milinkovic-Savic that looks for a contact with the striker.
It’s clearly a dive and a yellow card. Then, if VAR calls you and shows you a still image – I was there behind the monitor and they showed him a still – well, in that case is it always a penalty because the dynamic nature of what happened is not taken into account.
Therefore VAR should only be used for objective situations like offside or to decide whether the ball is in or out. In the kind of situation, referees must be put in charge again because the dynamic is too important to determine whether there was a foul or not.
And you can’t treat penalties lightly because penalties decide matches.
