Juventus is Furious, Is "The Old Lady" Really the One who Suffered the Most from the Referee?

MILAN, SUNDAY — The Italian Derby at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on Sunday (15/2/2026) WIB was won by Inter Milan with a score of 3-2 against Juventus. "I Nerazzurri" are increasingly solid and unchallenged at the top of the standings. On the other hand, Juve returned home with anger regarding the officiating system in the Italian League.

Supporters of Juventus and neutral fans of Serie A generally highlighted the role of referee Federico La Penna, who influenced the outcome of the match. La Penna issued a second yellow card to Juve's right-back, Pierre Kalulu, in the 42nd minute. This resulted in I Bianconeri playing with 10 players since the end of the first half.

The situation was strongly protested by Juve's Coach Luciano Spalletti along with two senior officials of Juve, Giorgio Chiellini (Football Strategy Director) and Damien Comolli (CEO). They intercepted La Penna on the stairs of the stadium's locker room during the halftime break.

Chiellini's screams were most audible from the video recording of the incident that went viral in the online world. One of the best former defenders of Juve and the Italian national team is known for his calm demeanor during matches, but his anger erupted.

“Nothing, nothing,” Chiellini said to La Penna and his two assistants after the first half.

Chiellini pointed to Kalulu's foul on Inter defender Alessandro Bastoni. Kalulu only made light contact, blocking Bastoni with his hand.

Bastoni fell, prompting La Penna to unhesitatingly issue a second yellow card to Kalulu. In the 32nd minute, La Penna had already noted Kalulu's jersey number in the yellow card recipients' column. Spalletti also shouted at La Penna, "Fake match."

"Clearly, there is a group of incompetent referees leading the matches. This is embarrassing; we must change the (refereeing) system now," said Chiellini to Sky Sports after the match.

He continued, "Gianluca Rocchi must resign. This incident is a disgrace to Italian football, as the whole world is watching."

Comolli also agrees with Chiellini. According to him, the injustice displayed by La Penna diminishes the meaning of football. He stated that Juve has officially protested to the Italian Refereeing Association (AIA) since the beginning of the season, but this has gone unheeded.

"What happened (to Kalulu) is unacceptable. It's a complete injustice," said Comolli, who previously worked in England and France, as quoted by Diretta.

"We do not care if this happens to us or other teams, but this system must be fixed. VAR needs to be improved. The individuals assigned to the matches must also possess the necessary skills so that there are no more losses in major matches," he added.

Meanwhile, Spalletti refused to conduct interviews with the official broadcasting rights holders after the match. He also did not attend the post-match press conference. In addition to Spalletti, no Juventus players stopped to respond to interview requests in the mixed zone before leaving the stadium.

In addition to highlighting La Penna, Comolli and Chiellini also pointed out the changes in VAR regulations. La Penna did not discuss the second yellow card with his assistants in the VAR room because the incident did not warrant a direct red card.

Kalulu has already received a yellow card, thus VAR did not intervene. The VAR for that match refers to the rule that their involvement is only in one situation, namely the potential for a red card due to a serious foul.

Luca Marelli, a former referee of the Italian League who observed the match on DAZN, stated that La Penna made a significant mistake. He also described the VAR rule, which can only intervene in cases of direct red cards, as absurd.

"The decision was a serious error. La Penna was deceived by Bastoni's response (after the contact with Kalulu)," said Marelli.

Inter coach Cristian Chivu acknowledged that Kalulu's contact with Bastoni was light. "However, as a professional player, Kalulu should have been more careful because he had already received a yellow card," Chivu said, as reported by Corriere dello Sport.

The red card received by Kalulu allowed Inter to dominate the match in the second half. Before halftime, the duel was tied 1-1, based on two goals from Juve's defender, Andrea Cambiaso. He misjudged a shot from Inter's winger, Luis Enrique, in the 17th minute. Cambiaso redeemed that mistake with an equalizing goal in the 26th minute.

In the second half, drama unfolded on the field. Inter's young striker, Francesco Pio Esposito, put his team ahead in the 76th minute, followed by Juventus captain and midfielder, Manuel Locatelli, who scored with a shot in front of Inter's goal in the 83rd minute.

Inter scored the decisive goal to secure three points thanks to a long-range shot from Piotr Zielinski in the 90th minute. This result maintains I Nerazzurri's winning streak to six matches in Serie A.

The draw from Giuseppe Meazza threatens Juventus' position in the top four. They could drop to fifth place if AS Roma avoids defeat in their match at Napoli's home on Monday (16/2/2026) early morning WIB. Both Juventus and Roma have 46 points.

If Kalulu had not received a red card, Juve would not have been guaranteed a win. The referee controversy presented in the Italian Derby adds to Juve's list of protests against referee decisions in the 2025-2026 season.

At least three Serie A matches have ended with Juventus openly protesting to the referee. The first instance occurred during their visit to Verona's home ground on September 20, 2025. Federico Gatti, a Juventus defender, was elbowed by the striker, Gift Orban, but VAR did not intervene.

Last week, Juve also protested the referee's decision in the match against Lazio. One of the incidents protested was the disallowance of Teun Koopmeiners' goal, which was deemed to have been influenced by a Juve player who was in an offside position and obstructing the line of sight of Lazio's goalkeeper, Ivan Provedel. In the replay, Khephren Thuram, Juve's midfielder, was not positioned in the direction of the ball from Koopmeiners' shot.

According to calculations by Superscommesse, which regularly updates cases of refereeing errors in Italian League matches, Juve is the team most disadvantaged by the arbitration group's decision in the 2025-2026 season.

Superscommesse, as of February 15, 2026, stated that Juve would have had 51 points if there had been no refereeing errors in 24 Serie A matches this season. This indicates that Juve lost five points due to incorrect refereeing decisions.