It took until the 32nd match of the Serie A season for the first penalty to be awarded, using the first VAR On-Field Review, and the 34th match before a spot-kick was converted.
The AIA (Italian Referees Association) had warned everyone it was going into the 2026/27 campaign laying down new guidelines after years of criticism that there were too many stoppages, too many weak penalties and red cards.
While VAR was thoroughly embraced by Italian football a lot more than elsewhere, the complaint was that too many incidents were being zoomed in and judged on slow-motion replays rather than taking into account the speed and intensity of the match in context.
Serie A transformed refereeing standards
It has certainly been a shift in evaluation, because the first 31 matches in Serie A this season had not a single penalty awarded, nor a VAR On-Field Review recommended.
Arguably, the handball incident during Genoa’s 1-1 draw with Frosinone falls under the remit of situations considered not clear and obvious errors, as the hand wasn’t visibly moving towards the ball.
It didn’t matter anyway, because after it was awarded, Lorenzo Colombo promptly side-footed the penalty wide of the target for Genoa.
We had to wait until the 34th match of the campaign to see a spot-kick converted, with Daniel Maldini scoring against his parent club Atalanta for the 2-1 Cagliari victory.
That was also for handball, although in this case the referee spotted the Sead Kolasinac flailing arm above the head in real time.
Serie A is standing apart from the crowd with this new attitude, and some worry they might’ve over-corrected.
After all, LaLiga saw 13 penalties awarded in the opening 30 matches, nine in Ligue 1, five in the Premier League, and just one in the Bundesliga.
