The excitement great, the tone gruff. Soccer referees are known to be caught in the crossfire of criticism from both teams. The head of the DFB referee is now going too far. Because modern technology also opens up new points of criticism for the trainers.
DFB referee boss Lutz Michael Fröhlich is critical of the way the coaching teams use laptops and tablets during games. “The TV pictures for the coaching staff actually had a different origin: that you can follow the game, the game development and, if necessary, change the team with the help of pictures. So for tactical purposes,” said the 65-year-old on Sunday on the TV channel Bild . “It’s not actually meant to be a permanent check on the referee’s decisions and then to get upset about it.”
In professional football, it is now common for supervisors on the bench to watch controversial scenes again on a screen. Recently there had been heated debates in the Bundesliga about decisions made by referees and their video assistants. “I would basically wish that we had a different approach,” said Fröhlich, Managing Director of Sport and Communication at the referee GmbH at the German Football Association, and called for “more objective and technical debates in the discussions. Somehow that reminds me a bit at the moment a hit-and-run mentality.”
Fröhlich was reluctant to comment on the suggestions of coaches such as Julian Nagelsmann from FC Bayern Munich and Oliver Glasner from Eintracht Frankfurt to think about a so-called coach challenge. These already exist in other sports such as American football. The VAR is only used at the request of the coach, the possibilities for checking are limited.
“Of course we also discuss the challenge internally in the refereeing area. It’s an interesting aspect. However, I think that due to the excitement of the last few weeks it is now advisable to deal with the problems with the system,” said happy. “If you keep loading the innovation process with new ideas before you’ve finally solved the old problems, it’s not particularly helpful either.”
