AIA chief Gianluca Rocchi (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
With news Inter’s club referee manager Giorgio Schenone was mentioned in Gianluca Rocchi’s wiretapped calls, Marco Gabriele explains what the role actually entails.
The scandal that prompted Serie A and B refereeing designator Rocchi to suspend himself this week continues to grow, with more questions being answered.
It was alleged that Rocchi had colluded with someone to remove Daniele Doveri from big Inter games and replace him with someone ‘preferred’ by the club, such as Andrea Colombo, but not clear who had made the evaluations.
Today Repubblica newspaper claim Rocchi mentioned Schenone in a wiretapped telephone call on April 2, 2025.
Schenone is Inter’s official club referee manager, so it is to a certain degree his job to communicate with the referees, but not every Serie A club even has someone in this role.
What is a club refereeing manager?
The Gazzetta dello Sport therefore contacted former Lazio club referee manager Marco Gabriele, a retired referee, to give a little more insight.
“There are some internal duties within the club, others external that involve relations with the referee. During their careers, players often don’t know the rules of the game, especially when it comes to handball. So we try to inform the players of the rules and how to use the right language when communicating with the referee.
“There are some players who know more about the rules than others. Pepe Reina, for example, would write to me and ask about specific incidents in games he wasn’t even involved in.”
Among the duties of the club referee manager is also to study who is officiating the next match and prepare his players for the approach they might take.
“There can be some very clear differences,” continued Gabriele. “Massa for example is very detached, rigid in his communication, whereas Maresca and Guida prefer to dialogue with the players.
“I’ve also had to describe the characteristics of opposition players and statistics, for example that if you are up against Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and his opponents often get booked in the first half, a coach has to be prepared for that.”
The issue at stake here is how must he represent the club when speaking to referees and the designator.
“The day of the game, you welcome the referee if it is your home match, accompany the officials to the dressing room and see if they need a physio or anything. Then organise transport to a hotel or airport after the match.
“It is also your job to ensure no directors enter the referee’s dressing room. Only the President of the club, or a representative of the club, can enter for a formal hello and that’s it.”
Can the referee club manager call up the refereeing designator?
“No, you cannot do that. If you did, the designator would have to inform the Federal Prosecutor. It’s different if you happen to meet in a stadium or another role, that’s natural that there will be a conversation.
“If you have to ask for an explanation of a certain decision, you call the designated go-between, who in this case is Andrea De Marco. There generally aren’t arguments in these situations, you’d just try to get your idea across, but never in a discourteous way,” concluded Gabriele.
It is important to note that while Inter designator Schenone was mentioned by Rocchi in the wiretapped phone call, he was not involved in the call itself.
The details are therefore still not very clear as to why Rocchi believed Inter didn’t want Doveri officiating their big games.
