The match between Venezia and Inter, played last weekend, saw the referee Luca Pairetto and the VAR intervene at several key moments, sparking controversy especially for two offside decisions and for a contact between Carlos Augusto and Sohm. The match ended with Inter winning 2‑0, but the controversies offered food for thought on the functioning of the automatic offside detection system introduced in Serie A this year.
At the start of the first half, immediately after Croatian midfielder Sucic entered the area, Venezia asked for a penalty for an alleged contact with Helgason. However, the referee considered that the action was already spoiled by Sucic's offside position, so he did not award the penalty. Shortly afterwards, Venezia protested for a slight contact between Bisseck and Lauberbach, but the referee decided to let the match continue, judging the gesture to be of no importance. Another episode of interest was the yellow card shown to Bastoni for a foul on Adams, who had just started a dangerous restart. The referee deemed the decision correct, as Bastoni had prevented Adams' advance.
Two Venezia goals were disallowed for offside, both by minimal margins but detectable from the images. The first was disallowed immediately after Kike Perez's free kick, when Provedel blocked the shot and Lauberbach tried to turn it over, but the German was beyond the last defender. VAR confirmed the offside, a case which has fueled online discussions about whether the detection threshold is very low. The second was disallowed in the second half, when Adams passed Provedel and scored, but again the starting position was in violation of the offside rules. The referee stated that there was no doubt about the correctness of the decisions.
The most controversial contact occurred during the move that made it 1-0 for Inter. Before Thuram's descent and Moreno's own goal, Carlos Augusto made a very hard contact on Sohm. Venezia asked for a foul, but the referee let the situation go and VAR did not intervene. According to the current rules, the contact was considered a foul, but the decision was consistent with the higher intervention threshold established by the reference referee Daniele Orsato, who asked the referees to interrupt the game less for tackles of this type. The referee therefore maintained the line of not intervening in this situation, in line with the directives of the referee commission.
Finally, on Inter's second goal, Carlos Augusto's header was disallowed due to a deflection from Halhal, but the decision was considered regular. In summary, the match highlighted how the automatic offside detection system is influencing arbitrary decisions, with very small but still present margins of error. Referee Pairetto managed the match with decisions consistent with the rules, but Venezia's protests demonstrate that the intervention threshold continues to be a point of discussion between teams and fans. Inter's next match promises to be crucial to consolidate their position in the standings, while Venezia will have to try to overcome the defensive difficulties highlighted during this match.