According to a report from Kicker, a trial period will begin in the German Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga from the next round, during which referees will explain their decisions after using the VAR system directly in the stadiums. Representatives of the DFL (German Football League) and DFB (German Football Association) confirmed this information.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Testing will not take place at all stadiums, but only at nine owned by clubs whose sporting directors were members of the DFL football commission when the initiative was first discussed last year.
The list includes stadiums of the following clubs: Bayer 04 (Leverkusen), Bayern (Munich), Borussia (Dortmund), Eintracht (Frankfurt), Freiburg, St. Pauli, RB Leipzig, Fortuna (Düsseldorf) and Greuther Fürth.
The first announcements could be made this weekend, during the 20th round of the Bundesliga. In particular, this concerns the matches Fortuna – Ulm, Bayern – Kiel, St. Pauli – Augsburg (Saturday), as well as Eintracht – Wolfsburg and Bayer 04 – Hoffenheim (Sunday).
The referee will address the spectators when he has personally reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor or when he changes his decision based on information from the video assistant (e.g. regarding offside or the location of the infringement). To better understand the process, a short video explanation will be shown to spectators in the stadiums.
The referee will face the main stand and use the “Push-to-talk” button on his equipment to activate the headset for broadcasting to the stadium loudspeakers. He will inform the spectators what play has been reviewed, what the judges have concluded and what the final decision is. The announcements will also be integrated into the live broadcasts of the matches.
The explanations will be short and based on the scheme already used for stadium screens. They will be somewhat more detailed, but without being overly technical. Jochen Drees, responsible for VAR at the DFB, cited the example of the announcements from the Carabao Cup semi-final between Tottenham and Liverpool in early January.