Iuliano insists infamous Ronaldo penalty ‘would not be awarded with VAR’

Former Juventus defender Mark Iuliano insists the infamous penalty incident with Inter striker Ronaldo in 1998 ‘would not have been given with VAR.’

The incident in Turin came during a showdown at the top of the table on April 26, 1998.

Iuliano and Ronaldo collided in the penalty area and the referee waved away appeals, followed by a Juve counter-attack to earn their own penalty with Alessandro Del Piero at the other end.

It went down in history as one of the most controversial moments in Serie A, and among the reasons why Italian football pushed harder than any other to introduce Video Assistant Referee technology.

However, Iuliano insists the matter was overblown and stands by the original decision of the referee.

“I maintain that penalty would not have been given even with VAR, because it’s so difficult to agree on what happened,” the former Juventus defender told the Centrocampo podcast.

Would he have reacted with the same anger as the Inter players if he had an incident like that go against him?

“Yes, before seeing the replay. At that time, the referees took responsibility along with their assistants, now they are practically pointless.

“Everyone asks me about this, but I was just standing there and he is the one who ran into me. Do you have any idea how many similar moments there are and the referees almost never blow the whistle?”

Referee Piero Ceccarini, who was officiating that day, agreed with Iuliano that he wouldn’t have changed his mind seeing the replay.

Inter reacted furiously on the touchline, with coach Gigi Simoni threatening to walk off and declaring ‘shame on you’ to the referee.

“Juventus were so much of a superior team to Inter then that you couldn’t even compare them,” responded Iuliano.

“Ceccarini gave a penalty to us 30 seconds later and Gigi Simoni, a great person, ran onto the pitch along with the entire bench. The referee should’ve sent all of them off and take action.

“Besides, Taribo West did commit the foul for our penalty. I remember that night people wanted to ask me questions, but seeing as we had practically won the Scudetto, I just went out to celebrate.”

Curiously, the penalty was irrelevant, because Alessandro Del Piero saw it parried by Gianluca Pagliuca.

Juventus had opened the scoring with Del Piero in the first half and that is how it remained.

Iuliano also reveals another aspect to that legendary moment, insisting there was no bad blood.

“It makes me laugh that everyone asks about this, because I have met with Ronaldo again, we played in matches together, we never talked about it.

“It was a media storm that meant more to the fans and the clubs than to us players.”