Serie A refereeing chief Daniele Orsato has acknowledged seven mistakes made by officials at the start of the season, including five in the league and two in Coppa Italia.
Orsato revealed the figure during a meeting with journalists, where he reviewed a number of controversial decisions from the opening weeks of the campaign.
Among the incidents accepted as errors was an unpunished handball by Nikola Vlasic in the penalty area during Torino’s match against Milan. The decision not to penalise Pierre Kalulu for holding Joe Rowe in Juventus’ game against Atalanta was also included.
However, Orsato did not consider several other disputed moments to be refereeing mistakes. Those included the collision between Kevin De Bruyne and Joaquin Vazquez in Genoa’s match against Napoli, and the incident involving Davy de Winter and Randal Kolo Muani before Cisse’s goal in Juventus’ meeting with Milan.
He also rejected the suggestion that Stanislav Lobotka had handled the ball during Inter’s match against Napoli.
The meeting also provided a set of statistics on refereeing and match play in Serie A. Effective playing time has increased to 59 minutes 24 seconds, which is 5 minutes 53 seconds more than at the same stage last year.
At the same time, the average number of fouls has fallen from 26 per match to 22.74. The average number of yellow cards has dropped from 3.63 to 3.22, while the average number of red cards has declined from 0.18 to 0.04.
Only five penalties were awarded during the first five rounds of Serie A. That is the lowest figure among European leagues.