Serie A News: Emergency Meeting today

By Dave Eadevic
April 14 2004

Italian football president Franco Carraro has called and emergency meeting today, in order to discuss the state of refereeing in Serie A. This is believed to be a responce to the controversy surrounding some top games at the weekend.

There were some contreversial calls at the weekend, not least the penalty awarded to Milan, which all but guaranteed them the Italian Championship.

In a close game referee Gianluca Paparesta awarded Milan a penalty in the 84th minute which secured the points for the league leaders he also sent off Empoli Goalkeeper Daniele Balli for a challenge on Jon Dahl Tomasson, but repeated views tell a different story, the contact was very minimal and did not interfere with play.

But that wasn't the only dodgy descision of the weekend Inter beat Perugia 3-2 thanks to an 88th minute off-side goal.

Perugia's volitile President Alessandro Gaucci has stated that he is stepping down from his position in a protest at what he sees as unfair bias against his team from Referee's.

"At this point, I don't believe in calcio anymore and I don't believe in the people that run it," said Gaucci.

"The only way to save my health is to definitively leave this world," he said, adding that he hoped for a long disqualification from the league because "I don't want to be on the field anymore."