Referees and VAR explain Milan penalty call and Yildiz red card | OneFootball

The Italian Referees’ Association agreed with the decision not to award a penalty for Venezia against Milan and explained why Kenan Yildiz was sent off for Juventus.

Every Sunday, DAZN has the segment Open VAR where they can hear the audio from the Video Assistant Referees as they analysed the incidents in real time, giving an insight into how they evaluated the situations and why they made certain decisions.

There were two particularly controversial moments in today’s games, starting with Strahinja Pavlovic’s challenge on John Yeboah in Milan’s victory over Venezia.

The audio shows the VAR officials decided the referee had evaluated correctly on the pitch, as the Milan and Venezia players were running in parallel, a decision that former referee and representative of the AIA (Italian Referees’ Association) Mauro Tonolini agreed with.

“The intensity of the push was extremely soft, they were running parallel, so both were moving their feet towards the ball and inevitably collided, but there was insufficient intensity for a penalty. We are very happy with the decision.”

VAR evaluated correctly in Milan and Juventus situations

Kenan Yildiz sent off for elbow on Alessandro Bianco in Juventus vs. Monza

Another moment saw Juventus star Kenan Yildiz shown a straight red card for violent conduct, as he lashed out an elbow on the face of Monza midfielder Alessandro Bianco.

“You can see it is a clear elbow, there was no reason for it,” said the VAR official.

“He clearly looks at the player and then hits him with the elbow.”

This was a decision where even Kenan Yildiz did not argue, as he seemed to realise what he had done.

“The fact that Yildiz looks for Bianco and goes towards him is obviously the reason why it is violent conduct, and the VAR was right to intervene. We have many situations where arms connect with opponents, but looking at him confirms it was voluntary,” confirmed AIA figure Tonolini.

This is likely to earn Kenan Yildiz a two-match Serie A ban, which would mean missing the Juventus games against Bologna and Lazio.

There was another controversial incident, as DAZN’s refereeing expert Luca Marelli suggested Yann Bisseck should’ve had a penalty for his tussle with Evan N’Dicka during Inter’s 1-0 defeat to Roma, but the VAR audio from that game was not aired.