Tiago Pinto reflects on incidents after Fiorentina defeat

Following Monday evening's Serie A defeat against Fiorentina, Roma general manager Tiago Pinto held a post-match press conference with the media at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

Here is what Pinto had to say...

“I don’t like to come here this evening, because I am not one that loves to talk a lot – and especially not to talk about subjects like this. But I think that right now it is important to send a collective message, on behalf of the club – as the coach has already said – because we, and the club and the city we represent, and the ownership we report to, have a duty to try and improve every aspect of the work we do.

“And that includes the rapport we have with the referees, in terms of our understanding of the interpretation of the rules, of VAR, and everything else. I think we have improved a lot in many ways, but unfortunately we now have two matches left in an intense battle for European football and we still don’t understand how things operate.

“It’s an irrefutable sign that something is not working correctly when we get to the final two games of the season and all week we have had confusion and situations in which no-one understands what the criteria is. Today’s example [in the game against Fiorentina] is just one more example of that, where a touch on a player who is already falling over becomes a penalty despite the fact that everyone who knows the rules, the refereeing criteria and the intervention protocol knows that episodes like that are not intervened with by VAR.

“I don’t want to criticise anyone or any referee: all of us can make mistakes, and we ourselves certainly make plenty of them. We constantly reflect on what we are doing in our own work. But I have to say we are getting to the end of the season very tired. Tired, because it is easy to say that Roma have an ‘aggressive attitude’ on the sidelines without seeing what the other teams are doing too. It’s easy to say that Roma moan a lot about the officiating. But at the end, unfortunately, incidents have happened to us. In the end, we can also see that those who have made mistakes have paid the consequences but if you look at the league standings, unfortunately, those don't change as a result too.

“So I am sorry to be coming here now, after 36 games. I apologise for the arrogance but I think I am a smart guy and yet I still do not understand the process, the rules and the criteria that Serie A are applying.”

Do you think that refereeing mistakes have affected Roma’s position in the league standings?

“What I want to make clear today is that, just like all of you in the jobs you do, us of us in football take our responsibility for things at the end of every season. That’s how it is. Results become our responsibility. And we cannot continue to do our jobs if we do not deliver results.

“So what I expect is that at the end of the season everyone takes their responsibility. I do not want to say that we have lost a lot of points, or give a number to that, but I think that all of you, with the experience you have in football and what we’ve seen this season, you all know that there have been a lot of episodes that have unanimously seemed to be judged to have gone against us.

“But what worries me is that I watch every Serie A game, because I really love Serie A, and it’s not just me who is confused. Every week we seem to have situations that end up leaving everyone confused about what the penalty rules are, the VAR rules etc. With the application of VAR – as I said a few months ago – Roma have been very unlucky and suffered many confusing situations."

Are there referees that Roma are particularly unlucky with?

“What I want to underline is that the job is difficult, but it must be considered difficult by everyone. We can continue to use the word ‘unlucky’ but then we have to recognise that Roma have been very unfortunate.

“I don’t want to talk about specific referees, because Roma has always had a constructive relationship with all the various governing bodies that operate within the game. We’ve always been very open to discussion, very open to listen and to learn.

“But unfortunately we are now two games away from the end of the season, and in the fourth minute of the match there is an incident that brings us here to talk about things we still don’t understand. I have a lot of respect for everyone. My preferred way of working is to not talk too much about it. My way of working is to be very self-critical and analyse every way we can improve.

“But I am a bit tired of getting compliments from everyone about our progress in the Conference League, because of how we represent Roma and how we represent Italy and Italy football – which is all very nice – but then we go into an away game like this after the semi-final and this is what we are faced with.

“I tell you all the truth, I am very pleased to work for Roma and very pleased to be working in Serie A, but I am tired because I thought I was an intelligent person and it’s now 18 months that I haven’t been able to understand the VAR criteria, the penalty criteria, what’s a foul and what isn’t.”

It’s been a long time now that Italian stadiums have not been affected by public order incidents. Don’t you think that putting such a spotlight on refereeing, across the board, could heighten the risk of trouble?

“This is a pretty creative question, considering that I see club directors talking about referees each and every week. I have been at Roma for 18 months, I have spoken publicly twice and it’s me who can incite the public? At Roma we never look for excuses for things that we can improve.

“Even with refereeing we want to improve.

“But it is clear that, if we think about the first derby, Udinese at home, Venezia away, Bologna etc. etc., we have done everything not to cause trouble. As you know I was suspended after one match and I did not appeal – to send a sign that we are a team that want peace, not to make war.

“As I’ve said, if at the end of the season we are all expected to take assume our responsibilities – then truly everyone needs to do that, not just us. Unfortunately there is one thing in football that does not change: that’s the league standings. And all this hurts us there.”