FEATURE | Is VAR coming to Germany’s 3. Liga? – Clubs have their say | OneFootball

It’s sometimes your team’s saviour, other times it robs you of a glorious moment, and mostly it’s the pain of football fans’ existence. VAR (Video Assist Referee) has always been a hot and controversial topic since its introduction to football. Supposedly to rid the game of “clear and obvious” mistakes, it appears to be micro-managing the game and getting involved in situations where the outcome seems clear to the human eye upon first glance. 

So much so in the Premier League that Norway’s premier division (the Eliteserien) opted against implementing the system. 

Currently operational in the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga, there are now talks to implement some form of VAR in Germany’s third division, the 3. Liga. As reported by NRZ, clubs in the division have had their say on the system and whether it should be welcomed to the division. 

The Current Situation

Club officials in the 3. Liga plan to discuss the use of VAR during a meeting sometime in February. 

However, should the system be introduced to the league, it would have to operate slightly different than in the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga due to stadium restrictions and manpower within the VAR room (often called the Cologne Basement, as that’s where VAR officials are based). 

The suggestion that will be discussed is an already tried and tested scaled-down version of VAR, often labelled the “coaches’ challenge”. The concept is currently being trialed in Italy’s third tier and was also used at the U17 World Cup in Qatar last November. 

The challenge system allowed coaches to have two challenges to intervene in cases of goals, red cards, penalties, and mistaken identity. If you’re successful in your appeal, you keep your challenges. 

What Do The Clubs Say?

Clubs in the 3. Liga have differing opinions on VAR or even a slightly different way of using it in this case. 

SC Verl sporting director Zlatko Janjic was in support of the proposal: “Referees from the first and second divisions have this tool, so it would be good support for referees in the third division.”

Michael Preetz of 2nd-place MSV Duisburg was also welcoming of the idea but did warn that it would come at a cost: 

“The technical possibilities are there in principle. Whether they can be implemented economically in the third division, I dare to doubt. Therefore, it’s certainly not wrong to consider alternative scenarios.”

He continued to warn: “The very emotion of the sport is somewhat diminished when you have to wait four or five minutes for a final decision. That takes away a significant amount of the emotional intensity that ultimately defines this sport.”

FC Saarbrücken Chairman, Jürgen Luginger, was critical of the proposal: 

“A more cost-effective version with the option of a coach challenge only makes limited sense to me, and I doubt whether a cheaper variant would actually uncover serious errors in judgment. Therefore, I say: all or nothing.”

With the wide use of VAR around the world and within Germany’s top two professional leagues, it feels that the only remaining professional league will eventually adopt some form of VAR. 

GGFN | Jamie Allen