In Sunday's game, the controversy was caused entirely by the former. Well, maybe "honest mistakes" should be replaced by "incompetence" when it comes to what happened in the Juventus Stadium on Sunday. What makes it worse is that the Lega Serie A could have avoided the farcical performance by simply selecting the right referee.
They certainly didn't do that this time around. The selection of Gianluca Rocchi as referee was an unfortunate and extreme mistake, and it marred what should have been the best game of the season so far.
Some background: Rocchi is a 41-year-old Florentine who has been been a professional referee since 2000. He's been refereeing the higher divisions since 2004 and became an international referee in '08.
How he has maintained that international status—or made his way onto UEFA's Elite list—is anyone's guess. Rocchi's career at the highest level has been marred by incident after incident.
Rocchi has had a contentious relationship with several teams, including Inter.
********* compiled this list of Rocchi's past head-scratchers in the hours after the match ended. The incidents are many. He's fallen for dives—notably in a game between Palermo and Lazio in 2010. He's given mystifying yellow cards—like an incident involving Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Inter, where he issued the Swede a second yellow for continuing play beyond an offside whistle despite the fact that Ibrahimovic was in the act of kicking the ball when the whistle blew.
He has shown a distressing inability to control matches. In a 2011 clash between Lazio and Bologna, every call was subject of argument. He lost control early, and eventually two players saw red for their part in an unsightly brawl. Another fray on the stroke of full time saw Mauro Zarate punch one of the assistant referees.
Phantom penalties have also been a part of his CV. In a 2011 contest between Inter and Napoli, he awarded a penalty on a challenge from Joel Obi that was outside of the box—and sent the Nigerian off to boot. The spot kick was missed and Hugo Campagnaro slotted home—despite having encroached into the box. Inter manager Claudio Ranieri was sent to the stands after the incident.
The coup de grace came in a 2012 Champions League game between Manchester City and Real Madrid. Rocchi issued seven yellow cards in the match, awarded a controversial penalty and sent off Madrid's Alvaro Arbeloa. Rocchi's performance was so bad that UEFA suspended him for the first leg of the round of 16.
That last sentence really says it all. Gianluca Rocchi has been suspended for poor performance over the course of his career. Yet somehow, the Lega Serie A decided that he was suited to take command of a game that would once again draw the eyes of the soccer world to the Italian peninsula.
It's clear how disastrous that decision was. Rocchi had lost control of the game long before he courted controversy with his first penalty call. Players mobbed him with every whistle and clearly had no respect for his position on the field.
Nicola Rizzoli, shown here at the World Cup final, would have been the better choice to take command of such an important game.
Nicola Rizzoli, shown here at the World Cup final, would have been the better choice to take command of such an important game.Clive Rose/Getty Images
Whether the calls were accurate or not is a matter for another article. As James Horncastle pointed out on ESPN FC on Sunday evening, the margins were so thin that you can watch the replays forever and never be totally sure.
What is certain is that Rocchi was clearly unsuited for an assignment such as this. Given the table positions of the teams and their contentious history, a ref with a strong hand was required. Rocchi's history showed that he lacks such strength—and he proved it on Sunday.
What makes the Lega's decision even worse was the fact that they had a referee who absolutely could handle such a match at their disposal. Nicola Rizzoli has been named Serie A Referee of the Year the last three seasons. In the last two years he has been entrusted with the final of both the Champions League and the World Cup. On merit alone, Rizzoli was the clear choice for such a high-profile job. Instead, his talents were wasted on the Udinese/Cesena match earlier in the day.
Saturday's game was the kind of matchup that, in the past, would have been given to the likes of Pierluigi Collina or Roberto Rosetti. For some reason, the current equivalent of those esteemed officials was passed over for this most crucial of assignments and an inferior referee was given the responsibility instead.
It was that decision—one taken before Rocchi had ever blown his whistle on Sunday night—that was the chief cause of the controversy that followed.
