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Nieuws
- 54 minutes ago
Serie A boss demands foreign referees in Italian top-flight
Martin Macdonald
- 10 Nov 2025 08:30 CST
- 3 min read
Nieuws
Lazio head coach Maurizio Sarri believes Serie A needs to bring in foreign referees as he doesn't think domestic officials are of the required standard.
On Sunday evening, Lazio lost 2-0 against Inter with Lautaro Martinez and Ange-Yoan Bonny both getting on the scoresheet.
There was a controversial moment in the match when Martinez took out winger Mattia Zaccagni, who was forced to leave the pitch after receiving treatment. Inter then went up the pitch and nearly scored as Lazio temporarily went down to 10 men.
Instead of Martinez receiving a yellow card for the challenge, Sarri was instead booked for his protests on the touchlines.
Following the game, Sarri blasted the officials, telling reporters:
"Why did I get angry? For one simple reason: Lautaro's foul on Zaccagni deserved a yellow card. If it had, Zaccagni shouldn't have left the pitch. Not only did he not issue a yellow card, he forced Zaccagni off the pitch, and we almost conceded a goal from that side. Even Padre Pio would have gotten angry.
"I don't see any referees up to the task, including tonight's. I hope Serie A can get the help of referees from abroad; they need to be 'rented' there.
"We're paying for something inside the box. We had a few chances, but it's not easy. What positives do I take away? This is a team that's improving. After the first goal, the team recovered and stayed in the game until the end. Let's start again with this mentality."
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| Manager | Club | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Martin O'Neill | Celtic | 73 |
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| Maurizio Sarri | Lazio | 66 |
| Rafa Benitez | Panathinaikos | 65 |
| Jose Luis Mendilibar | Olympiacos | 64 |
| Kent Nielsen | Silkeborg | 63 |
| Jose Mourinho | Benfica | 62 |
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Sarri: Referee not to blame for Inter loss
The veteran coach stopped short of outright blaming the officials for the loss against Inter, whom he said were the better team on the night.
"The referee didn't influence the result. Inter played better than us and would have won regardless of who officiated," Sarri continued.
"When you enter San Siro and concede a goal after two minutes, it becomes tough. We wobbled but got back into the game. We had our chances. It wasn't a disastrous match. It's frustrating because the two goals came from two simple turnovers: the first near the box, the second right after we regained the ball. Perhaps these errors favour the more technical team, but it leaves a bitter taste. The performance was decent.
"We pay for the technical gap; we'll see if we can close it as much as possible. We don't have a traditional striker. Our forwards have other characteristics. The only one could be Castellanos, who can handle himself well in the box; the others play the role differently. Right now, we're paying for that in the area, yet coming to San Siro we still had two or three scoring chances, which isn't easy."
The Italian capital club have suffered a poor start to the new Serie A campaign, with four wins, three draws and four losses from their opening 11 matches. They are currently in ninth place with 15 points on the board.
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