VAR boss admits: ‘Can’t be happy with how this season has gone’
Christian Dingert
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VAR boss Jochen Drees has admitted that too many refereeing errors have been made in the Bundesliga. The VAR remains only an aid, he emphasized.
In the course of the season so far, there have been a striking number of referee and VAR errors in the Bundesliga. Jochen Drees, project manager of the VAR concept in German professional football, has now openly admitted this.
A state will never be reached in which referee decisions are no longer criticized due to the lack of errors. After all, it is still people who hold the whistle and who have to make decisions under great pressure with a subjective perception.
And yet the much louder and more frequent criticism of the referees in league one and two in the course of the season so far is justified. After all, there have been major mistakes almost regularly in recent weeks, partly despite or even due to the VAR intervention, which ultimately could not be explained and are not appropriate to the level of the league.
Jochen Drees has now admitted that the current season has not been a success so far. The former referee is the project manager of the VAR at the DFB and is therefore largely responsible for everything to do with the video evidence.
Drees admits refereeing mistakes are too common: “Can’t be satisfied”
In the table football-Show ‘What’s up, Bundesliga?’ he explained (via football.news): “Overall, we can’t be satisfied with how things have gone this season. There have been a lot of mistakes that we haven’t made in recent years.”
However, too high expectations are also a bigger problem. The technical aid is and will not remain an all-purpose weapon.
Fans cannot assume that there will be no more mistakes due to the VAR use. “We no longer have any difficulties when it comes to factual situations,” said Drees, praising the development of very close offside decisions.
Such situations, in which there is only black or white – or offside versus no offside – could now be checked without any problems and handled correctly accordingly. The aspect of one’s own interpretation goes hand in hand with the intervention of the referees in front of the screens, who have to evaluate hand penalties or foul games, for example. This increases the margin for error.
Overall, Drees continued, the goal of the DFB must be to further increase the rate of correct interventions and decisions.
In view of further changes, he did not rule out the introduction of a so-called challenge system, in which teams could have certain situations checked. Such a development is “quite conceivable”. However, Drees also had objections, referring to the FIFA regulations: “As Germans, we can’t say we’ll just do it now.”
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This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as VAR boss admits: ‘Can’t be happy with how this season has gone’ released.