Female referee given ‘terrible advice’ by VAR

Multiple refereeing experts argue referee Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi had originally made the right call on the Adrien Tameze incident during Inter–Torino, but was given bad advice by her VAR.

This was an historic occasion with the first ever all-female refereeing team for a Serie A match, with Ferrieri Caputi assisted by Francesca Di Monte and Tiziana Trasciatti.

However, there were still men in the VAR booth and they seem to have given some poor advice, as Aleandro Di Paolo and Gianluca Aureliano urged Ferrieri Caputi to go back to the monitor and change her original decision.

Tameze certainly bumped into the back of Henrikh Mkhitaryan just outside the penalty area and Ferrieri Caputi had a perfect view, showing a yellow card.

She did not consider it to be a clear scoring opportunity for two reasons, as Matteo Lovato was also inside the box ready to cover and above all Mkhitaryan was running wide as if to provide the assist for Marcus Thuram rather than cutting inside towards the goal.

Refereeing experts bemused

It was therefore “confusing” to DAZN refereeing expert Luca Marelli when the VAR recalled her for the On-Field Review and suggested she change to a red card.

“I really don’t understand why the VAR would do that, it is not a clear and obvious error, and what’s more is not a clear scoring opportunity either, as the ball was going towards the corner flag, not the goal. It lacks the criteria for a DOGSO call.”

Considering it was a female referee being led astray by the male VAR and asking her to change a perfectly good decision, inevitably there were jokes on social media that this was the officiating equivalent of ‘mansplaining’ and really not a good look for the old guard.