Collina: "No more football without VAR, leaving UEFA has been a personal decision"

Pierluigi Collina has released an interview to Italian sport newspaper "La Gazzetta dello Sport". Law 5 - The Ref has translated it for you.

Pierluigi Collina has recently left his UEFA duties

It can't be denied that World Cup refereeing, including VAR, has been a success. Perhaps you, Busacca and Boban wouldn't have imagined that. 

Nice to hear that from neutral observers and football fans. After Euro 2016 it was said that the moral winner had been the refereeing team, the same happened after Russia 2018. Not a random result because nothing at this level is just a coincidence. The process started four years ago, immediately after 2014 WC in Brazil, with the first selection of candidates and then with a long series of seminars, each detail has been treated with the utmost care.

For example?

For example we organized  a friendly tournament at the beginning of June in Moscow, so referees didn't lose the form between the end of their championships and the start of the World Cup. This had been  never done before. When I was still an active referee, I asked for officiating games in Serie B to keep my form. Then I want also to mention the confirmation of  the importance of our match-analysts, experts who have studied teams and players to offer technical-tactical input to referees.

How to identify the best referees from all the continents?

Having said that nowadays there are digital platforms that allow you to see and study everything, when Infantino wanted me to join FIFA, I suggested, first of all, that in the refereeing committee there shouldn't have been political members but only technicians, former referees and in particular refereeing chiefs of the six confederations. In a few time we will start again on the road to Qatar 2022, when many of the 2018 WC referees, for reasons of age, will be out from selection.

Where to find some good referees for the future? 

Not only from Europe or South America. Other continents are developing as well. For example, Iranian Faghani has made a WC at very high level and also the Senegalese Diedhiou was among the best officials.

We can say that all what you did in Russia for refereeing has been a "group" work. You, Busacca, Rosetti for VAR ... and then Boban.

Boban did not have a direct involvement but as Deputy Secretary FIFA wanted him to stay with us, deciding from the first day to live in our hotel. This pleased me because the refereing  team is one of the best "national team" for FIFA. He lived with us, without interfering in the choices but at the same time never making us lack support. He also helped us when we asked for something for referees. 

Instead, with Busacca and Rosetti you are colleagues.

We shared our daily work with Massimo, starting from 10 km of running in the morning to stay in form and then the management and the choices, always with great agreement ... Together we worked very well. Rosetti as VAR expert at WC has been my personal choice: if UEFA hadn't appointed him when I resigned, I would have confirmed Roberto with a very important and central role for refereeing in FIFA, this had been already planned in any case.

Is there anything at moment that can be studied to improve refereeing?

In the last 10 years many things have been done, today's referees are really prepared as it was never before, their knowledge of the game is at a very high level and physically they are real athletes, so that today we need to work more on injury prevention. for sure there is always room for improvement. I would like to see referees to be more reactive to the changes in football so that they could in adapt their style more quickly.

Can the non-use of the VAR in Champions League be the reason of your farewell?

"Everything has been said, even that I would have promoted its development with FIFA and the slowdown with UEFA, obviously this is not the case: FIFA immediately believed in it and started the preparation much sooner, then there are some differences: so far VAR has been used in championships and tournaments played in only one country. Trying to do it in the Champions League where you play in many countries and with many broadcasters is surely more complicated. But I'm sure that also the UEFA will make the decision to implement it and referees will find themselves ready for the use of techniology.

Has anyone asked for your resignation?

No, rather, UEFA asked me for changing idea, when I informed them. 

What about your relationships with Infantino and Ceferin?

With Infantino we shared the idea and the project to change the refereeing in Europe, I still remember the very long phone calls at the beginning of 2010 where we discussed what was necessary to do to improve the performances of the referees. Then, when he became FIFA president, he wanted me to join his team. The evening of WC final he came in our hotel to celebrate the success with all referees. Regarding Ceferin, I'm grateful to him because he gave to me his full trust, by confirming my role, when he was elected as new UEFA president.

Don't you see the risk that the top referees, being accustomed to VAR, could have troubles to return "human referees"?

VAR gives you more peace of mind, it doesn't make you change the way you refere. In the pitch, the referee will decide at the same manner, and then, in case of clear mistake, VAR will save him. So, a referee shouldn't change his mind only because he is going to officiate a game with VAR help. It is very important, and I asked for that since the first Ifab meeting in which the topic was discussed (November 2014,), that the referee must have the final decision, If there is an objective fact, for example an offside, no problems, but otherwise it is only the referee who must review the images before deciding. In any case, some officials have been forced to chang their old style..

Who?

Assistant referees, who have been told to delay the flag on some occasions, because it is better to score the goal and then evaluate to the video rather than blocking an action that aferwards turns out to be correct. In Russia, we almost never talked about offside issues. This was an excellent success.

In short, no future in football without VAR?

I do not think so, partly because people would not understand, we live in an age where everything we do is based on the use of technology. We tried years ago to reduce errors with the human eye, with the  additional assistant referees, but then technology did not allow today's precision. Nowadays, it is even improving: before the World Cup we went from a 2D evaluation for offside to a 3D one, that is indispensable to evaluate more accurately the position of a foot compared to a head. 

You would have liked to use VAR when you were still a referee... 

Nobody is happy while making mistakes and then being criticized for that ... Of course for those who used to decide by themselves it's not easy but you have to be open to change, in the end what matters is the final result.

Source:

La Gazzetta dello Sport