Frustration and disappointment dominated the post-match reaction of Daniele De Rossi after Genoa-Napoli, a game decided in stoppage time by a highly controversial penalty.
The head coach of Genoa praised his team’s performance but was openly critical of the officiating that handed the win to Napoli.
“I’m proud of my players, because we played a great match against a very strong team,” De Rossi said. “But penalties like this make people fall out of love with football.”
“The Rules Are Wrong”
At the center of De Rossi’s anger was the late spot-kick awarded after a challenge involving Cornet and Vergara — a decision he believes reflects deeper issues in modern football.
“This is no longer the football I grew up with,” he explained. “The problem starts with the rules. That was not a clear and obvious error, so I don’t understand why VAR intervened.”
Ironically, De Rossi admitted he was once a strong supporter of VAR.
“I used to be VAR’s biggest fan. When I was playing, it would have saved me from a few robberies. But now we’re giving it too much power, and there’s no going back.”
A Game at Risk of Losing Its Identity
De Rossi warned that football is drifting toward a version driven more by technical interpretations than by the spirit of the game.
“Contact will always exist. If we keep going in this direction, the sport will change completely — and not for the better. We’ll all end up conceding penalties like this sooner or later.”
Despite the anger, the Genoa coach refused to single out individuals, even when addressing defensive mistakes that led to Napoli’s earlier goals.
“Football is about mistakes. Without them, there are no goals. Some of Napoli’s goals came from our own errors — that’s part of the game.”
Pride Without Points
Genoa left the pitch with zero points but renewed confidence in their identity. Still, De Rossi’s words captured a broader concern shared by many in European football: that refereeing trends and rule interpretations are slowly reshaping the sport.
For De Rossi, the defeat hurt — but what worries him most is something deeper.
“When games are decided like this,” he concluded, “football loses a piece of its soul.”
