Rizzoli: It will be a tough Serie A season for referees

Date: 9th September 2014 at 4:48pm
Written by:

Nicola Rizzoli admitted that it will be a difficult 2014-15 Serie A season for match officials but he commended innovations such as the introduction of vanishing spray for free kicks.

Legendary former referee Pierluigi Collina also praised Rizzoli for his work that led to him being chosen as the referee for the World Cup final and the 54-year-old added that it is time to evaluate a new generation of Italian referees.

“We need to look forwards, without looking backwards in Italy,” said Rizzoli to Sky Sport Italia.

“It will be a difficult season for us because our league is one of the most difficult in the world.”

Italy’s top referee also praised the arrival of vanishing spray at free-kicks on the peninsula, technological help for officials and spoke of general changes in spirit that he would like to see in the Italian game:

“The spray? It’s an important innovation that will allow play to be restarted more quickly, it’s an improvement.

“Replays? What I can say is that the officials on the pitch try to make as few errors as possible.

“If one day there is technological help that could help us immediately then it would certainly be a good initiative.

“I love football like any fan and I will try to change the culture.

“The best team should win and the second best team should be sporting and offer their compliments to the victors.

“From here we can restart and start to change our football.”

Rizzoli also offered his thoughts about officiating Germany’s 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final at the Maracana:

“It’s a goal that was achieved thanks above all else to those who taught us our trade.”

“It’s difficult to describe my favourite memory from that evening, to referee a World Cup final at the Maracana is the best a professional can dream of.”

Former referee Collina also praised Rizzoli and spoke about Italian football in general.

“Rizzoli? The facts speak for themselves, he refereed the World Cup final and that’s testimony to his value,” said Collina.

“It’s undeniable that there are problems in Italian football.

“It seems to me that they’re doing important things to try and fix i and we hope it works well.

The iconic referee also spoke about the new generations of Italian officials.

“We’ve just started a new season, we need to watch and evaluate the new and young referees to guarantee a great future.”

 

Comments are closed.