Jochen Drees on the development of video evidence:

“For many, it is still a difficult topic because it is very loaded in the public perception. I often also have the impression that the negative decisions are highlighted more often than the many positive ones, for example when, as on the last matchday, Augsburg’s win at Leverkusen or Schalke’s equalizer against Mönchengladbach is made possible by a decision of the video assistant.”

The frustration of the fans in the stadium:

“Making the right decision is more important to me than the game moving on quickly. But of course I’m also biased. 70 seconds during the review doesn’t seem long to me as a video referee. When I’m in the stadium, it feels different. From a fan’s point of view, I can understand some of the anger, because the stadium spectator is not involved in the review process and there are no pictures of the situation in the stadium. However, in Germany, we achieve times that are respectable. If you compare these with other countries, we are among the leading nations. There are hardly any other countries that can do it faster.”

The positives:

“There are no more factual offside goals. Of course, there are still individual situations that leave room for interpretation in the question of influencing an opponent and in which mistakes then happen due to a human evaluation. Often there are also decisions where we classify them as correct from a professional point of view, but players and coaches nevertheless interpret a punishable offside. There are now virtually no swallows that lead to penalty kicks. Players are also more deterred from assault. They know they won’t get away with it anymore. The video assistant makes the sport cleaner as a result.”

Reasons for the longer duration of the review:

“One aspect is certainly a further increase in the diligence of video assistants and referees. When the referees are standing at the monitor, they also want to get a complete picture of the situation at hand in order to make a correct decision. That is one of the reasons. On the other hand, the technical development of the system has increased. We now have more cameras available that have to be evaluated. Also, the offside line didn’t exist in the beginning – and adjusting the line sometimes just takes a little longer.”

On changes to video evidence:

“If the semi-automated offside technology, which will be used at the World Cup in Qatar, becomes established, then we will also have to think about introducing this technology in Germany. With the figures published by FIFA, it is possible to reduce the offside check from circa 70 to 20 seconds. This would also make the work of the video assistants easier. However, this will then not help with discretionary decisions such as penalty kicks and red cards.”