Potential Move of VAR Headquarters from Cologne to Frankfurt: What Does this Mean for German Football?

Who doesn’t know the Cologne cellar? The place where the VAR is used from weekend to weekend and monitors the game on the Bundesliga pitches. But now the Cologne cellar could soon be over.

Monitoring: VAR in the “Kölner Keller”. IMAGO/Beautiful Sports

The German Football Association is considering a possible move of the video referee headquarters – from Cologne to Frankfurt to the DFB Academy. But nothing is fixed yet, as Alexander Feuerherdt, head of media at Referee GmbH, said on Friday German Press Agency (DPA) said: “There are discussions and considerations, but nothing more.”

Previously this had ZDF in the “Sportstudio Reportage: Million-dollar EM game – last chance for the DFB?” reported about a possible move of the video referees. The aim was to make better use of the infrastructure of the modern DFB complex in Frankfurt, it said in the report, which also pointed out that the academy was a “significant cost factor” for the association.

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“According to ZDF research, the total costs were 182 instead of 150 million euros,” and the maintenance was “19 million euros per year.” The DFB campus, which combines the administration and the sporting area with, among other things, several training grounds, was built on the initiative of ex-managing director Oliver Bierhoff and was ceremoniously opened in June 2022 – and subsequently cost around 30 million euros more than the final estimate 150 million euros.

Furthermore, it has become an economic burden. DFB treasurer Stephan Grunwald confirmed last year that a loss of 15 million euros was expected for the year. If the video assistants were to move, this would at least reduce ongoing rental expenses.

VAR has been in place in the German upper house since the 2017/18 season, and was expanded to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2019/20. The video assistants have always followed the games of the two highest German leagues in the Video Assist Center (VAC) on the premises of the Cologne Broadcasting Center in the Deutz district of Cologne. Responsible for this is “DFB Schiri GmbH”, which is a subsidiary of the DFB and the German Football League (DFL). It bundles all referee services for the Bundesliga, 2nd Bundesliga, 3rd League and the men’s DFB Cup – the DFB owns 51 percent of the shares and the DFL 49 percent.

2024-03-22 18:05:59
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