From Inter–Juventus to social media abuse, via referees and assistants: when the ball fades into the background and the system shows all its cracks.
Inter–Juventus was played on Saturday night at San Siro and Inter won. That should be enough to sum up the weekend. Instead, it isn’t.
For two days now, all anyone has talked about is Bastoni’s alleged dive and Kalulu’s red card. As if what happened on the pitch had become a detail, and football a permanent courtroom.
The issue of simulation in Italy (but not only in Italy, let’s be clear) did not start today. It’s old, deep-rooted, almost cultural. VAR was supposed to be the cure, but it is often turning into an amplifier of the disease. Because knowing you are being watched by dozens of cameras has not made players more honest: it has made them smarter. At the slightest contact, they go down, exaggerate the movement, act it out. No longer just to deceive the referee, but to convince whoever is sitting behind a monitor.
Refereeing chief Rocchi said it clearly in a statement released on Sunday afternoon: everyone is constantly trying to deceive referees, and simulation is a serious problem.
He told the truth, even if the flaws and shortcomings of the refereeing system he oversees have been more evident than ever this season.
But as always happens, the football debate immediately turned into a witch hunt.
Since Saturday night, Alessandro Bastoni has been flooded with insults and threats on social media. And this is where football stops being football. Because the mistake—real or presumed—becomes a pretext to unleash personal frustration, social anger, pure hatred.
This is not just about Italy, and not just about football: the web has become a borderless land, where anything is allowed and nothing is truly punished. And that, quite simply, is not acceptable.
But let’s go back to the pitch, because that’s where everything starts. La Penna got it wrong. That’s clear. And under the protocol, VAR could not intervene.
So the real question is another one, and perhaps it’s the most uncomfortable of all: where was the assistant referee? He was on the same touchline, just a few meters from the Bastoni–Kalulu incident. Is it possible he didn’t see it? Is it possible he couldn’t help the referee?
That’s the point. In an era where every decision is delegated to technology, when technology cannot step in we suddenly find ourselves alone. Assistants seem to have forgotten how to be assistants. As if VAR has taken away their voice, their responsibility, their instinct.
And yes, this should make us reflect. Because football cannot be only screens, drawn lines and endless replays. It still needs the human element. It still needs the courage to make decisions.
L’articolo VAR, diving and the technology alibi: this is how football stopped deciding games proviene da Soccer Made In Italy.
