Referees in Germany's Bundesliga to start in-stadium announcements for VAR calls
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German soccer referees will start making NFL-style announcements to the crowd to explain video review rulings starting this week.
Bayern Munich and German champion Bayer Leverkusen are among nine clubs taking part in a trial program at their home games from Saturday onward, the German league said Monday.
Following on from a trial in the English League Cup earlier this month, five games this week have been selected for the first wave of Germany's program, including Bayern's game against Holstein Kiel on Saturday. It will only affect a minority of games in the top two men's leagues for now.
Referees will use a headset microphone linked to the public address system to communicate directly with fans after incidents that required review by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system. Only the final decision will be broadcast in the stadium, not discussions between the on-field referee and colleagues.
In Germany, many fans still resent VAR for interrupting the flow of the game and, as some see it, penalizing defenders too harshly.
The chief executive of the refereeing body for the leagues, Knut Kircher, argued Monday that making the VAR process clearer to fans was the logical next step.
'Despite all the controversial discussions about the video assistants, we want to keep working together with the (German Football League) and its clubs to make the referees' decisions in the stadium more transparent,' Kircher said in a statement.
'In the 'public announcement' we see a clear first step toward greater clarity and we have taken care to train our referees on the procedures. Therefore we are confident that we can successfully support this new approach even if it will seem unusual to begin with.'
Soccer is a relative latecomer to announcements which are widely used in other team sports.
NFL referees were given wireless microphones in 1975 to explain penalty decisions. Major League Baseball began in-park announcements during replay reviews in 2022 and microphones have long-been used by rugby referees.
In soccer, in-stadium announcements were in place at the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and other FIFA events.
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