Football, Capello: “Referees are a mafia, former players are needed at VAR”

Milan, Jan. 5 (LaPresse) – “Referees are a mafia. They don’t want to use former players for VAR, players who understand football movements, how a player stops, how he moves… And many times they make wrong decisions because they haven’t played and don’t know those movements.” Fabio Capello is very harsh toward the refereeing class and the way VAR is used, during an interview with Marca. “A player gets touched in the face, falls to the ground and they blow the whistle. But why do you whistle?! If I am 1.90 meters tall and the other is 1.75, when I move my arm it is at the height of his face, why do you whistle? This whole story drives me crazy, completely crazy,” added the former coach of Real Madrid, Milan, Roma and Juventus. Asked whether he thinks VAR could work better with a former player, Capello added: “Put someone there who can tell the referee: ‘Well, I don’t think it’s a penalty, or maybe it is.’ With UEFA we analyzed 20 situations in which penalties were awarded, examined by former players and former coaches, and 6 of these were penalties and 14 were not.”