January 2 – Germany’s Bundesliga will become the first major league to use video assistant referees next season for game-changing decisions.
The system is still in an experimental phase under an International Football Association Board (IFAB) mandate and controversy surrounded its first official implementation in international competition at the Club World Cup in Japan last December.
But Germany have decided to take the plunge ahead of rival leagues with Helmut Krug, manager of the German Football league referees, confirming: “There will be a link establishing between the referee and a video assistant.
“The video assistant will have the possibility of influencing the decisions of a referee.”
All Bundesliga referees have completed at least two levels of training and, in the third starting next month, they will have to prove themselves in pre-live tests. Assistant referees will work “at a single location” to review controversial incidents relating to goals, penalties, red cards, and mistaken identities.
The German top flight was one of several worldwide leagues selected by IFAB to trial the technology this season. Europe’s main leagues have already incorporated goalline technology and FIFA is hoping VARs will be used at the 2018 World Cup.
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