According to Italian media, Lega Serie A, the Italian Referees Association, and the 20 Serie A clubs recently held a meeting at the VAR Center in Lissone to discuss refereeing guidelines for the current season. Daniele Orsato, head of Serie A referees, stated that referees will continue to encourage attacking play and will not easily penalize minor physical contact.

Orsato said: "Our goal is to promote the flow of the game, not to whistle for minor contact. We will maintain these refereeing standards throughout the season."

The meeting was attended by several coaches and club officials to explain the refereeing guidelines that will be applied this season to all stakeholders. In a statement, the Italian Referees Association noted that to provide attendees with a clear and comprehensive understanding of the relevant standards, the meeting screened multiple videos categorized by different situations, including contact and fouls, pushing and pulling, handball, ball control in attacking phase (APP), serious fouls, violent conduct, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO), and offside.

Ezio Maria Simonelli, president of Lega Serie A, emphasized the importance of such communication activities at the start of the meeting. He stated: "This was a very productive meeting with strong participation from the clubs. Orsato analyzed many examples and was also self-critical. Mistakes are part of the game; what matters is avoiding repeating similar errors and ensuring refereeing standards remain consistent."

"Based on data from the start of the season, we are satisfied. Effective playing time has increased and the number of fouls has decreased—changes that are pushing the game toward becoming more fluid and entertaining."

Domenico Messina, technical director of the Italian Referees Association, stated that his main task along with Orsato is to raise the overall standard of referees while improving the entertainment value of matches.

Messina said: "Our main goal is to improve the average standard of referees and make a significant contribution to enhancing the entertainment value of matches. Encouraging more attacking play is precisely for this reason, and it aligns with the international environment we face."

"We will try to avoid the minor errors that occurred previously, but we will not back down from the technical philosophy that has been established. This philosophy has also been recognized by all the coaches present at the meeting."

Gabriele Gava, a member of the Serie A Referees Board, then presented statistics from the first four rounds of Serie A and compared them with previous seasons and some foreign leagues.

The data showed that the average effective playing time in the first four rounds of Serie A this season was 59 minutes 31 seconds, an increase of more than 5 minutes 30 seconds compared to the same period in the previous two seasons. The average number of fouls was 22.60 per match, down from 26.23 in the same period last season and also lower than the Premier League's 23.28. With increased playing time, the relative decrease in fouls in Serie A reached 13.8 percent.

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