Daniele Orsato begins his tenure as head of referee appointments with a new approach to pushing offences in Serie A

The article quotes a piece from *As* in which Pedro Martín – one of the leading international refereeing analysts, who works for the Spanish sports radio station Cadena Cope – states that Orsato “is the first referee to send off a Real Madrid player and then award a penalty in the same Real Madrid international match at the Bernabéu. A record of which Orsato will be very proud (personally, I would have disallowed Manchester City’s goal and not sent off Sergio Ramos).”

Sergio Ramos a testa china

Il capitano del Reala Madrid dopo l’espulsione comminata da Orsato negli ottavi di finale di Champions League in Real Madrid-Manchester City 1-2 (gol della vittoria di De Bruyne su rigore)

fermo immagine highlights Uefa

On the Champions League website, without a replay, it’s hard to make out much. What is certain is that Gabriel Jesus’s push on Sergio Ramos – which, at the time, looked like a clear foul on live TV – is no longer penalised in international matches these days. So was Orsato ahead of his time?

Let’s return to the present day, to 22 August 2026, to De Bruyne’s push on Vázques that broke the deadlock in the Genoa v Napoli match. A 100 per cent foul before the 2026 World Cup, but no longer a foul after what we saw the Argentine players put up with in the United States.

It all began on 15 July 2026 in the Argentina v England semi-final with Paredes’ shove on Bellingham (DAZN) shortly after the kick-off;

Moving on to the Spain v Argentina final, with Giuliano’s foul on Cucurella: (Instagram) the foul was called but he wasn’t booked. For those who understand Spanish, the video is interesting: esto es el fútbol.

Yesterday in Genoa, De Bruyne pushed Vázquez before scoring.

It can be inferred that Orsato explained to the Italian referees that, at the 2026 World Cup, the whole world saw that pushing an opponent with the forearm is no longer a foul: the referee and VAR officials in Genoa adhered to this new ruling.

But at the World Cup, these violent acts were not penalised after the opponent had passed the ball or hadn’t even touched it.

But Orsato is Orsato. So with him , pushing is allowed even when the opponent has the ball, as in Genoa : another world record.

Furthermore, it would appear that Orsato deliberately failed to mention that these pushes with the forearm are not penalised even in the penalty area, as he will argue that “the penalty area is just like any other part of the pitch”.

This week, all football coaches in Italia, from Serie A right down to the youth teams, will feel obliged to ask their players to push their opponents with their forearms: the rules have changed. Here are the 113 pages of the Laws of the Game for football, updated on 1 August 2026.

Here, on the other hand, is the De Bruyne’s goal on 22 August 2026 on Sky: Italian football has changed.

Here is Matteo Dalla Vite’s article of 20 July 2026 on Gazzetta dello Sport: Orsato: “Referees: less VAR and more correct decisions on the pitch. And stop blowing the whistle for every bit of contact”.

This other one is from today: “that push was worthy of a whistle”.