On the 20th matchday there is a lot of trouble about the video assistant referee again. Some coaches complain that the idea “is destroying football”. The video evidence chief now explains a few things. It is questionable whether the waves can be smoothed out with it.
After the excitement on the 20th matchday of the Bundesliga, DFB head of video evidence Jochen Drees emphasized that the video assistant referee (VAR) should only intervene in the event of a clear wrong decision. “The basis of a VAR intervention is still the presence of a clear and obvious wrong decision on the basis of an evident picture. The intervention threshold used up to now has not been changed,” Drees told the “kicker”.
Earlier, RB Leipzig coach Marco Rose addressed what he saw as the “inflationary” use of video evidence in Germany. Coach colleague Bruno Labbadia had even sharply criticized the video evidence after his VfB Stuttgart’s 2-1 defeat at SC Freiburg. This was introduced “to uncover blatant wrong decisions. And then the referee needs what feels like ten minutes to commit himself. I remain a total opponent of the VAR. He destroys football.” In the Sky interview, he stormed: “Above all, you can’t get the referee who makes a clear decision out. That’s how you debunk the referees.”
However, Drees strengthened the referee team of the match around Sascha Stegemann. In both cases, which led to penalties for Freiburg, there was a foul play by the defender, “so it is a question of clear and obvious misjudgments by the referee,” explained the DFB video evidence manager: “The two on-field reviews are therefore correct to rate.”
