‘No foul on Ronaldo, even with VAR’

By Football Italia staff

Former referee Piero Ceccarini defends his decision not to award a penalty to Inter against Juventus in 1998 - “VAR wouldn’t have considered it a penalty”.

The incident took place over 20 years ago, but is still a controversial issue to this day.

With the Bianconeri 1-0 up, Ronaldo and Mark Iuliano clashed in the box, and Ceccarini waved play on.

Juve broke up the pitch and were awarded a spot kick of their own, which Alessandro Del Piero missed, and went on to win the match and the Scudetto.

Luigi Simoni, who was Nerazzurri Coach at the time, has said “history would have changed” if VAR had been in place, but the official that day doesn’t see it the same way.

“I’ve already said this on several occasions, maybe people aren’t listening to me,” Ceccarini said on Radio Crc.

“Along with the commentators at the time, there was [former Inter player Fulvio] Collovati and [ex referee Massimo] Chiesa, who just happened to say it wasn’t a penalty.

“I was sure on the pitch and even today I’m still certain of my decision. If Collovati and Chiesa had been on VAR they wouldn’t have considered it a penalty and wouldn’t have called me to review it.

“If I’d seen the incident on the monitor I’d have said Ronaldo ran into Iuliano.”



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