Referees Marco Guida and Davide Massa will be sidelined for a while following the glaring mistake in Torino-Inter. The former, who was the VAR assistant, will not officiate matches for at least a month in Italy. He will initially be back on the pitch in Serie B, as it happened in other similar cases.
Still, Massa will direct Lille-Chelsea in Champions League Wednesday. UEFA does not change their designations despite what happens in the domestic championships. Guida will be stopped for two or three weeks, Corriere della Sera informs.
The error in Torino-Inter is considered indefensible and unjustifiable by the heads of the referees’ association. Regardless of the angle, it was clear that Andrea Ranocchia tackled Andrea Belotti in the box. The coordinators are particularly appalled because two international and senior officials were involved.
According to the publication, Guida had all pictures at his disposal to evaluate. Torino had suggested he looked only at partial and unclear ones. He communicated to Massa via radio that the defender hit the ball and not the opponent.
The Granata have been particularly unlucky with referees this season. They have yet to be awarded a penalty kick after 29 rounds. They had blunders go against them also in the matches against Sassuolo, Venezia and Bologna. The episode in Torino-Inter drew the ire of Milan fans as well. The Nerazzurri could have been down two-nil in the first half. Instead, they stayed close in the score and eventually found the equalizer with Alexis Sanchez in the stoppage time.