Complaints about the Video Assistant Referee overshadowed the first weekend of play in the German Bundesliga.
The VAR was invoked at key points, leading to decisions that worked against Hoffenheim in its 3-1 loss to Bayern Munich and against Schalke in its 2-1 loss to Wolfsburg. Afterwards, Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann said the VAR review was “a stupid period of video watching,” and Schalke sporting director Christian Heidel said the system was in “shambles.”
Though the use of VAR was widely hailed as a success at this summer’s World Cup, Bundesliga had technical issues on multiple occasions in its first season with the technology last year.
Bayern Munich was awarded a penalty kick despite replays showing Franck Ribery fell without any Hoffenheim player making contact. Robert Lewandowski had his first PK attempt saved, before teammate Arjen Robben scored on a rebound. VAR overturned the goal, ruling that Robben entered the box too early, but Lewandowski scored on the next PK attempt. Both Bayern’s coach and sporting director commented after the match that the initial penalty was granted in error.
Schalke lost its match while playing down a man after a VAR review led to a red card. Its opponent, Wolfsburg, initially lost a player to a red card that VAR overruled, turning the decision into only a yellow card.
Both Schalke’s Heidel and Hoffenheim’s Nagelsmann blamed the central VAR office in Cologne for the problems, arguing that the remote assistant improperly intervened.
“I felt sorry for the referee today,” Heidel said, according to the AP. “Cologne introduced the confusion. The referee would probably have done a wonderful job if the VAR hadn’t intervened.”
SportTechie Takeaway
This time, the culprit was the usage and interpretation of VAR rather than a malfunction of the technology itself, like last year. At the end of the day, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle argued, VAR is meant only as an assistant rather than an authoritative decision maker, meaning the only people responsible for the confusion and the errors were the referees, who have the authority to override the system. Such squabbles are not unexpected in VAR’s infancy, but at least the tech infrastructure is providing a foundation for refereeing decisions.