Former Juventus CEO Luciano Moggi: “Against Inter Milan, Napoli Coach Antonio Conte Highlighted A Serious Flaw In VAR” | OneFootball

Former Juventus CEO Luciano Moggi has weighed in on the controversy of Inter Milan’s 1-1 draw against Napoli in Serie A, in which they were awarded a contentious penalty.

The Nerazzurri were awarded a spot kick when Denzel Dumfries went down in the box following a challenge from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, although the level of contact and the use of VAR in the incident has proved to be a major talking point despite Hakan Calhanoglu missing the penalty.

In an interview with Tuttomercatoweb, Moggi suggested that the frustrations of Napoli coach Antonio Conte at the decision highlighted a major issue with the VAR system.

“This is the spice of football, everyone has his own viewpoint,” Moggi said of the fallout.

“Conte pointed out a problem that really exists and he did it when the opponent missed the penalty, it’s a warning to everyone.

“It would have been different to say it after a goal. VAR is a subjective machine: it’s objective for offside, even though you often see little of the line when the ball starts.

“But it is subjective because the intensity of the tackle is assessed by the referee, VAR is slightly deficient because sometimes it cannot intervene, sometimes it cannot see.”

Moggi felt that VAR had it’s benefits though and argued that conspiracies of Juventus being caught out by the system had proved false, with new coaching ideas coming from the Bianconeri.

“However, it has saved many situations. One president said that with VAR Juve would no longer win. Juve won because they had ideas and today in fact all the best coaches are from the Juve school.

“The problem that is being posed is not one of expediency, but someone is exaggerating in talking about VAR and it is precisely those who called for it.

“Nobody would care about football without some controversy, but I agree with Rocchi when he asks not to stir it. My assessment of VAR is 70% positive, 30% negative.”

Moggi then turned his attention to the title race, with Napoli leading Atalanta, Fiorentina, Inter, and Lazio by a point, and Juventus one further behind.

“For me, it is between Napoli and Inter,” Moggi claimed.

However, he felt that Atalanta had the potential to challenge but were held back by coach Gian Piero Gasperini losing his star players every year.

“There would be Atalanta, but they take a different approach. They are lucky enough to have a coach who is a safe and who allows them to sell players well, collect money and then outbid those who buy them.

“If they had been able to keep everyone they had developed La Dea would be a great team. Percassi and Gasperini have established that they want to combine the sporting and economic sides very well.

“Charles De Ketelaere had undermined Paolo Maldini’s sporting credibility at AC Milan, but int Bergamo he is one of the best.

“Matteo Retegui was a decent striker at Genoa, he became top scorer at Atalanta. Work is important, those two know football inside out,” he concluded.