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Messina: "Referees, if anyone makes a mistake they will pay heavily. On VAR and the second yellow..."

The new technical director of the Italian Referees’ Association speaks

"If anyone makes a mistake, they will pay heavily. We do not accept that there can be errors from an ethical point of view": Domenico Messina, the new technical director of the Italian Referees' Association, told ANSA at the Cascia training camp, setting out a clear line on the conduct expected of match officials for the new season.

He also addressed the issue of phone calls and outside relationships, which sat at the centre of controversy last season, and ruled out the need for a new code of conduct.

"There is no need for it," he stressed, "because the protocol already exists. It is in every referee's DNA to have conduct and ethics suited to the role they perform."

Drawing a clear distinction between mistakes on the pitch and those involving personal conduct, the AIA's new technical director said: "We will be tolerant in the sense of trying to understand where a technical mistake comes from," he explained, "because the referee makes mistakes on the pitch, but from the point of view of ethics, conduct, clarity and transparency, there will be no tolerance for any referee."

VAR will be able to intervene and have a second booking rescinded when it is "clearly" and "unequivocally" wrong, stopping a team from being reduced to 10 men because of an obvious refereeing error.

That is one of the main rule changes for the new football season outlined by Domenico Messina, the new technical director of the Italian Referees' Association, at the end of the pre-season training camp in Cascia.

"There is this innovation in the VAR protocol," Messina explained, "which concerns clearly wrong second bookings.

I want to stress the word 'clearly': it must be a second booking that is unequivocally wrong, and this can be rescinded through VAR intervention".

Messina said the change addresses one of the most controversial situations seen in the past. "A wrong second booking undoubtedly put the referee in great difficulty," he explained, "because it was clear that he had made a mistake, but the rules did not allow intervention. The other changes have been introduced above all to speed up the game and reduce stoppages and unsporting behaviour. The aim is to avoid all those situations that created tension among the crowd, the players and the coaches".

Elsewhere, a substituted player will have to leave the pitch within 10 seconds, while some restarts must be taken within five seconds. An injured player who is treated on the field of play will instead have to remain off it for at least one minute.

Separate new rules also cover substitutions: if the player being replaced delays leaving the pitch, the substitute must wait at least one minute and will only be able to come on when play stops.

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