What works in rugby and hockey could also become normal in football in the future: As a consequence of VAR breakdowns in the English Premier League, there is discussion at the highest levels about whether the conversations between the referee and his video assistants should be broadcast on TV in the future. Broadcasts and broadcast live in the stadium.
The considerations of the rule keepers in the International Football Association Board (IFAB) about lifting the corresponding ban were confirmed by IFAB member Mark Bullingham, the general director of the English FA. “I think that the live broadcast of the discussions will remain an issue in the future,” Bullingham told the Guardian: “The greater transparency would also better illustrate the difficulty of the refereeing tasks.” However, the FA boss admitted that the Opinions differ in the IFAB because “some fear this will create a new problem for referees”. Bullingham did not give a date for an IFAB decision on the issue.
Innovation in the Bundesliga
On the other hand, there could be something new in the Bundesliga this season. The referee department of the German Football Association (DFB) is working on a format in which the conversations between the referees and the video assistants in the event of controversial decisions after a match day are published and explained. The association confirmed the corresponding plans to the sports information service. What exactly the format will look like is still unclear. In England (monthly) and Italy (weekly) such formats have been in place since the start of the season.
The current reason for thinking about reforms is the recent game between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC (1:2), in which the unjustified disallowance of a guest goal due to offside caused an international stir due to the VAR team’s failure to make a correction. The English referees association PGMOL then published the audio recordings of the communication between the referees and spoke of an error by the video assistant due to a “lack of concentration and a loss of focus”.
In order to increase transparency, the world association FIFA recently had the respective referees explain decisions using video evidence via the stadium microphones at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. This practice, known from the American professional football league NFL, had already been tested at the Club World Cup and the U-20 Men’s World Cup.
“I also think FIFA’s attempt to have referees explain their decisions to the spectators in the stadium after a second check is a right step,” said Bullingham. The top German referees see it similarly. If FIFA approves this approach for its associations, the DFB would in principle be willing to implement it. However, the corresponding scenes should then also be shown on the video screens in the stadiums at the same time – as was the case at the Women’s World Cup.
Pirmin Clossé Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 7 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 4 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
Video evidence boss Jochen Drees advocated showing the scenes on the video cubes in the Bundesliga arenas before the start of the season: “I am convinced that visual information in the stadium would mean that fans can better understand the decisions.”
