Rocchi admits controversial Udinese-Lazio goal needs IFAB clarification

Refereeing designator Gianluca Rocchi explains why the controversial Udinese goal will be ‘discussed with IFAB’ over a gap in the rules, but assures Lazio he’s ‘ready to resign if anyone doubts our good faith.’

The last-gasp equaliser caused a firestorm in the Italian sports media when Keinan Davis charged down a shot with his arm and then scored the goal for a 1-1 result.

His back was to the initial finish and the arm in a natural position, but the rules state that handball is still punishable if he “scored immediately after the ball has touched their hand/arm (even if the touch was accidental).”

The trouble is that the rules don’t specify what ‘immediately’ means, as while Davis kept hold of the ball to score, there were also nine seconds between the handball and the goal.

“If you look at the Meister goal in Pisa-Fiorentina, there are one or two seconds between the handball and the goal, so that is immediate,” explained designator Rocchi on DAZN’s programme Open VAR.

“In this case, after recovering the ball with his arm, the player dribbles and touches four times. This cannot be considered immediate.

“The main problem is there isn’t a parameter we can base a decision on, so as a referee I would ask for there to be clarity, so we can give as objective a response as possible.

“I cannot right now say to the referee and VAR that they were wrong, because it is not immediate. We will turn the footage over to the IFAB to understand if we were right or wrong, as the wording does cause a problem.”

A solution suggested could be that if the player keeps hold of the ball after the handling offence without any further passes, then it should be considered immediate, but that is currently not in the rules.

Lazio were furious over the decision to allow the goal without even suggesting a VAR On-Field Review, going so far as to send a formal letter of protest to the Lega Serie A.

“I won’t get into political debates. I simply told everyone, including the Lega Serie A and FIGC, that if someone doesn’t believe in our good faith, I will resign tomorrow,” replied Rocchi.

“We try to make as few errors as possible, clearly an incident like this one is difficult to explain, but we are trying to outline why we made that decision.

“Our objective is to make as few mistakes as possible. If someone doesn’t believe that, it is not my problem.”