SENDAI (Japan), June 10: Franco Carraro, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), has told his countrymen to cut out talk of conspiracies and accept that referees and linesmen can make mistakes.

The Italians had two goals disallowed during their surprise 2-1 defeat to Croatia on Saturday, prompting wild claims that Giovanni Trapattoni’s team were paying the price for their lack of representation in soccer’s governing body FIFA.

“If someone thinks that the results of our teams in recent years depend on referees then they are a long, long way off the mark,” Carraro told reporters, referring also to poor results for Italian club sides in Europe.

“I have been in football for 40 years and I know that we must take the referees in good faith .. in Italy we are obsessed by referees like no other country in the world.

“In Italy there are probably some people who believe that things at international level are decided in the corridors of power. But most people know that the world game is not decided at the meeting table, otherwise it wouldn’t be as exciting as it is,” said Carraro.

Italian media reported on Monday that the Danish linesman had been sent home by FIFA after he disallowed the goals, but FIFA officials said the reports were rubbish.

“I have no reason to believe that on Saturday we saw anything amiss. I believe the referee’s errors were genuine and there is no proof to the contrary,” said Carraro.

“I simply do not believe that a referee takes on a match thinking that I will favour this team because of some director,” added the Federation president.—Reuters