VAR Missed Clear Inter Penalty, Referee Expert Admits
Luca Marelli reversed his live-broadcast stance, confirming VAR should have intervened on the Marcus Thuram foul.
Referee Luca Doveri incorrectly booked Marcus Thuram for simulation and denied Inter Milan a penalty during the club’s Serie A victory over Bologna, according to former Italian referee analyst Luca Marelli. The admission came after Inter secured a comeback win that kept them alone atop the league standings pending Lazio’s match against Juventus.
The incident occurred 15 minutes into the second half. Thuram dribbled past Matteo Darmian inside the penalty area. Doveri immediately issued a yellow card for diving. Replays showed physical contact between the two players, who were formerly teammates.
Italian sports dailies split hairs over the severity of the foul rather than questioning the booking itself. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that while “the contact is clear, by today’s standards it is considered slight.” Il Corriere dello Sport concluded that under current officiating tolerance levels, skipping the penalty was correct, but the yellow card was not.
Marelli initially defended Doveri’s call during live broadcast coverage. He reversed his position later in the studio.
“It was a mistake by Doveri and by me too,” Marelli said. “Not only did Thuram not dive, but it was a penalty. I have no problem admitting the mistake. The yellow card for diving was completely wrong, but the final replay shows very clear contact on Thuram. VAR should have called Doveri over to award Inter a penalty.”
Serie A has faced repeated scrutiny over Video Assistant Referee interventions this season. Protocol dictates that VAR must intervene when a clear and obvious error occurs involving a penalty decision or a red card. The failure to prompt an on-field review in this instance mirrors recent controversies in matches including Torino-Milan, Inter-Napoli and Fiorentina-Frosinone, where officiating errors went uncorrected without altering the final scorelines.
Giuseppe Pastore, speaking in the DAZN studio, pointed directly to that pattern. He noted that referee designator Gianluca Rocchi — referred to by pundits as Orsato leading a charmed life — benefits from errors that do not change outcomes receiving significantly less media attention than those that decide matches.
Inter’s result leaves them at the top of the Serie A table. Chivu’s tactical setup executed its game plan successfully despite the officiating controversy disrupting the second half.
