AC Milan News: Galliani responds to Ref critics

By Dave Eadevic
April 14 2004

Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani has given an interview to Alberto Costa of the Corriere della Sera newspaper where he talks about the issues of the day in Serie A and the problems arising from replays. We have pubblished the discussion below:

Adriano Galliani, we are seeing a lot of problems coming out of television replays.
'Yes, we need to look closely at this and decide how to handle this issue.'.

In what sense?
'In the sense that I was scandalised about the first television images after the games.'.

What happened?
'Our penalty and the going on that Tomasson was offside. The images proved the opposite and how well the linesman had done. They made out the linesman was guessing the position of the Milan player. Instead, he did well and should be complimented ...'.

When what happened after that?
'All hell broke loose. The Empoli goalkeeper came out and tripped Tomasson. It was a penalty and at this point I have to raise officially the problem of television replays.'.

What would you like to say?
'Who manages them? What criteria is used? Who can assure us that everything is objective? The replays lay the referees bare and I call on those who control them, who decides on the replays?'.

In general are you trying to difuse the situation.
'False. There were no examples when Milan should have had a goal: the same linseman who saw Tomasson onside disallowed a good goal. In this case they didn't look into it. Shevchenko's goal was almost certainly good. Then no one looked into the penalty Sheva should of had. The replays are instruments of immense pressure. The pressure comes from them not the clubs.'.

Do you fear repercussions?
'Certainly. It's reprehensible and maleducated to believe that Milan receive help from referees. The Siena president De Luca has raised this. We are from the left and want to beat Milan. We have never said we are from the right and want to beat teams from the left. Mr De Luca should learn how to behalf in a correct way. I understand that in the first year in Serie A that you want to create a certain folklore but I won't accept a president saying anything grave. The truth is that Milan deserve to be were they are in the table.'

Let's go back to the replays?
'I am raising a proposal. For one evening we change the roles between the ex-referees that have become commentators and the referees who have been out there on the pitch the previous Sunday. The later could sit with their former colleagues and sift through the replays. It would no doubt be instructive and I am sure we'll something good come out of it.'