“Football is drama,” Günter Netzer once stated. All those who feared an end to the drama with the video evidence see themselves deceived. There is still controversy and great emotion – and the question: What happens next?
Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – The organized fan scene wants to abolish it immediately, the officials like to scold the “Cologne basement” out of emotion, the associations are working on ever new extensions: Five years after its introduction, video evidence is still a huge irritant in the Bundesliga.
The eternal expert Günter Netzer (“Football is drama”), who worried that video images would make the sport perfect and boring, has long since been disproved. Arguments, swearing and discussions are still going on – now just with the additional layer of Video Assistant Referee (VAR). This has been the case since video evidence was first used in the Bundesliga on August 18, 2017, in FC Bayern’s 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
Soccer officials have set out with a vision of making the multi-million dollar business fairer. This plan is backed up with annual reports that between 60 and 100 wrong decisions are corrected each – Season in the Bundesliga. While many are fed up with the wait and constant corrections, referee boss Lutz Michael Fröhlich announced even more intervention before the summer break: “There is a tendency to think about lack of intervention rather than excessive intervention.”
Fans lament loss of emotion
Fans won’t like to hear that. In the corners, the VAR is rather unpopular, the correction of the factual decision is perceived as a clinical intervention in the sport. “A large part is very clearly against the video evidence,” said spokesman Sig Zelt of the ProFans alliance to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur: “The small gain in more justice is disproportionate to the loss of emotion.” Delayed goal celebrations make the sport “significantly less attractive” for spectators, he added.
The best example of Zelt’s thesis was the women’s European Championship final at London’s Wembley Stadium just over two weeks ago. When Chloe Maggie Kelly scored England’s title-winning goal in the 110th minute, her most important goal of her career, she had to wait anxiously for a few seconds before she was allowed to take off her jersey and cheer exuberantly. The German team, on the other hand, was left to rue the fact that they had not been awarded a penalty in the first half, despite the video footage available.
In addition to the delayed emotions, a central point of criticism from the fan scene is that TV viewers are much better informed about video reviews than fans on the ground, where they are often just told that a scene is being reviewed. Helen Breit from the fan organization Unsere Kurve said, “The opinion among us is unanimous: we can do without video evidence. It’s not comprehensible in the stadium and destroys the emotions when celebrating goals.”
More penalties, fewer red cards
Among officials, the opinion picture is more diverse. “In the beginning, I was still against video evidence. Now I can’t imagine it not being there,” Rudi Völler said in a dpa interview about the tool he once called a “mood killer.” The technical tool still annoys him sometimes and could be further improved, but the modernization of soccer is “also important,” despite all the tradition.
A look at the Bundesliga figures shows that since the introduction of video evidence, there have been more penalties and fewer sending-offs than before. It should be clear to everyone that video evidence is not going to disappear from soccer, as further innovations by the associations show. Instead, the tool is to be improved and expanded in terms of content. For the World Cup in Qatar (November 20 to December 18), the world governing body FIFA is planning to introduce semi-automatic offside technology.
25 instead of 70 seconds for offside corrections
A 500-hertz signal in the ball and a dozen cameras that record players’ movements via data points will be used to detect the position of players who may have been positioned offside even more accurately than before. The data is checked by a video assistant and immediately forwarded to the referee on the field. The review of offside scenes is expected to take only 25 seconds instead of the current 70 seconds.
An important point, because the long interruptions is one of the main annoyances for stakeholders. “It took five hours and 34 minutes to know it was a millimeter offside. I’d be interested to know how thick the line was that they drew there,” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann recently raged. Referee Deniz Aytekin even confessed to admonishing players before a corner kick in early August only to buy time for an ongoing review of the video evidence.
Referee challenged as boss
In addition to the factors of time, emotionality and transparency, the role of the referee on the pitch is also frequently at issue. Former top referee Markus Merk made it clear: “He can’t just be the video assistant’s vicarious agent. You have to train the referees to do their primary job better again: To bear the main responsibility on the field.” Many club officials also insist that the final decision should be made on the pitch and not be influenced too much by an intervention from Cologne.
When Schalke’s Dominick Drexler recently saw red after a scene that was judged harmless on the field, it was enough for Schalke’s sports director Peter Knäbel: “If there are loud department store detectives sitting in the basement looking for a picture in which you can prove any guilt, then the values of the game are not respected.” If this is the future, it’s no longer his game, Knäbel clarified. Schalke coach Frank Kramer rebuked the assistant’s intervention as “head refereeing.”
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