Adrien Rabiot has criticised the refereeing in Serie A despite Milan’s 2-1 win over Genoa in the 11th round of the league season.
The France midfielder was booked after protesting against a decision by referee Davide Massa during the match, following a challenge by Genoa defender Alessandro Marcandalli.
Just before the halfway line in the 49th minute, Marcandalli brought down Rabiot as the Milan player advanced towards goal. Massa showed the Genoa defender a yellow card, although Rabiot argued that the incident warranted a red card because he had been moving into a promising attacking position.
Rabiot continued to dispute the decision and was then shown a yellow card himself.
The incident also led to protests from the Milan bench. Three members of the club’s medical and coaching staff were sent off by Massa after objecting to the referee’s decision.
The debate continued on social media after the final whistle. Former referee Nicola Calvarese backed Massa’s decision in a post on Instagram, explaining that several factors had to be considered when determining whether a player had been denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
“You have to take into account the direction of the attack, the distance from the goal, the number of defenders and control of the ball,” Calvarese wrote.
Several users mentioned Rabiot in the comments beneath the video, prompting the midfielder to respond directly to the former official.
“In life, as in football, mistakes can be made, but at the very least we should know how to admit them,” Rabiot wrote.
He added: “Continuing to lie will not help you move forward. Italian football is the one paying the price for this. Think about it.”
Calvarese later revisited the incident in comments to La Gazzetta dello Sport and said the decision fell into a difficult area of interpretation.
“Let us make it clear from the outset that this was a complex situation, one that falls into the grey area,” he said. “If referee Massa had shown a red card, VAR would not have intervened to overturn the decision.”
For an incident to be classified as denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, four criteria must be assessed: control of the ball, the overall direction of the attack, the number of defenders and the distance from the goal.
Calvarese said those factors explained why Massa opted for a yellow card. Rabiot was approximately 65 metres from the goal and was positioned slightly towards one side of the pitch, rather than directly in front of the goal.
Those circumstances led the referee to conclude that Marcandalli had not denied a clear goalscoring opportunity, despite Rabiot’s objections.
