The issue is competence (little), jealousy (a lot), desire for protagonism (a lot). But to summarize Capello uses a strong term: mafia. It literally says: the referees are a mafia.
The referees
The chronicler of Mark he asks him about the Barcelona case, Negreira and Var. And it is above all this that infuriates the former coach of Real Madrid, Milan and Juventus. because if he laughs about the scandal of the Spanish referees’ president paid by Barcelona by saying: “Think how strong we were, they wanted to stop us like that and they didn’t succeed” and on Calciopoli: “There was no money there, and Juve paid with relegation, it’s you Spaniards who don’t know how to take action” he doesn’t hold back on VAR. Or rather, try first: “Forget it, forget it – says the journalist – because this is a topic that really infuriates me”.
There is a year
But the reporter doesn’t let it go and insists. He asks him if the English style of refereeing isn’t better and is it right to import it into the Spanish or Italian leagues: “No, no. The referees are a mafia. They don’t want to use former players for the VAR, players who know the details of football, the movements a player makes to stop, to help himself… And many times they make wrong decisions because they haven’t played and don’t know those movements. A player is touched in the face, falls to the ground and they blow the whistle. But why did you blow the whistle?! If I’m 1.90 meters tall and the other is 1.75, when I move my arm it is at the height of his face. This whole thing drives me crazy, absolutely crazy”.
The 20 episodes analyzed with UEFA
And he recounts a sensational episode by revealing a number that is astounding and should make us reflect: “Together with UEFA we analyzed 20 situations in which penalties were awarded. Examined by former players and coaches, 6 of these were penalties and 14 were not.”
Capello’s clarification
Then came the clarification from Capello, who declared that “when, in reference to the referees, he used the term ‘mafia’, he did so only to clarify that the Italian refereeing class operates as an extremely closed organization, which very rarely accepts real moments of confrontation and does not appear willing to allow sportsmen or former sportsmen who are not part of the same refereeing class into the VAR rooms, as he suggested several times in public statements, and amply clarified in the continuation of the interview”.
