In relation to the refereeing decisions made in the match between Udinese and Empoli on Sunday and the subsequent media noise, Udinese Calcio Managing Director Franco Collavino issued the following statement:
“As per our style, we often analyse referee decisions, even the most controversial, never in the heat of the moment, but the day after the match when we are more clear-headed. Our club always maintains a balanced attitude towards everyone on the pitch, without ever inflaming tensions towards referees, whose work we deeply respect.
“In view of this collaborative spirit and wanting to avoid sterile controversy, we’ve seen a lot of attention, in terms of background noise too, around certain episodes in yesterday’s match, starting with [Youssef] Maleh’s goal being ruled out.
“From a regulatory perspective, the face and head are particularly delicate parts of a footballer’s body. The check carried out by VAR, who have multiple frames available to analyse the episode, leaves no room for doubt given that [M’Baye] Niang’s elbow hit [Thomas] Kristensen’s face.
“However, after analysing these episodes in their entirety, we have to point out that we were left puzzled by the penalty awarded without hesitation to Empoli. The images show that the two players go into the challenge together and that the Empoli attacker goes in with his studs up.
“We also don’t understand the complaints around the extension of the original five minutes of added time given by Guida, during which 1m15 was lost to Niang’s goal celebration, 1m05 was lost because of [Sebastiano] Luperto’s cramp, and 1m25 was lost for the free kick in our favour. These numbers disprove the suggestion that the referee awarded us a penalty way beyond the end of additional time, which was further prolonged due to a technical problem in the VAR room. It was a clear penalty and should have resulted in a straight red card for [Jacopo] Fazzini since he denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
“We were also baffled by yesterday’s refereeing decisions with regard to fouls involving [Lorenzo] Lucca. It is not possible that a player of two metres should be a victim to his above-average stature and be penalised whenever he tries to free himself from an opponent’s marking. However, some hard fouls made upon him went unpunished, such as the elbow to the stomach he received from [Ardian] Ismajli at the start of the second half.
“If we need to resort to the public sphere to highlight issues with refereeing, we will reluctantly intervene publicly, trusting that proper communication will be had with the referees, who must have the confidence necessary to take charge of matches, especially at this decisive stage of the season.
“Udinese is used to obtaining results on the pitch and achieving our goals without manipulating the media or resorting to direct or indirect measures.”