When does the Video Assistant Referee intervene?

In the Bundesliga, the video assistant referee is also in action in the season that begins today. We’ll show you which ones the VAR intervenes with.

VAR – this is not the first letter of a car registration number, but the abbreviation of a system introduced in the Bundesliga since the 2017/18 season, the Video Assistant Referee.

This is intended to indicate wrong decisions by the referee, but in recent years it has repeatedly caused displeasure among players and spectators.

Does the VAR also exist in the Bundesliga season that starts today, Friday, August 13th? And when does the VAR actually intervene? We answer answers to these and other questions about the VAR in this article.

Bundesliga, VAR: Is there a video referee in the 2021/22 season

Yes, the VAR will also be available in the 2021/22 season, which starts today, Friday – for all games.

Bundesliga, VAR: When does the video assistant referee intervene?

It is clearly regulated when the VAR may intervene in a game situation. There are four precisely described cases:

• When scoring a goal (the following is checked: foul, handball, offside, another irregularity during or in the run-up to scoring)
• In the case of a penalty kick (it is checked whether an offense was punished correctly and whether a previously unpunished offense should have been punished after all)
• For red cards (non-punished or wrongly punished offense)
• If players are mixed up (in the case of a red card, yellow-red card or yellow card)

Bundesliga, VAR: What happens in a controversial situation

If the referee is unsure of a game situation or has not seen it correctly, he can contact the VAR on his own initiative. He then looks at the scene and gives a recommendation. The referee then looks at the situation again on a monitor located on the edge of the field and then makes a decision.

Basically, all decisions remain with the main referee on the court. The VAR should only assist this.

Bundesliga, VAR: Where does the video referee sit?

The VAR is still based in the Cologne Broadcasting Center in Cologne, better known as the “Kölner Keller”. There every Bundesliga game is followed by a VAR and an assistant. In addition, two people are responsible for the technology, i.e. for providing the TV images required for a game situation in question. The VAR can use all cameras used in a game to make its decision.

Bundesliga: The first matchday 2021/22 at a glance