The German Football Federation (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) will begin testing the use of video assistants from this weekend with the start of the 2016/17 Bundesliga season. German football wants to be at the forefront of digital technology in football by testing this technical development at the highest level. There will be up to four Bundesliga matches with access to the technology and as written in the laws of football by the International Football Association Board it will be used to confirm four different decisive match situations: scoring goals, penalties, sending-offs and player confusion with respect to yellow and red cards.
There will be two different periods of testing in the Bundesliga. The first will be ‘offline’ tests in the 2016/17 season where the video assistant will have no bearing on the game – this phase will be used to train both video assistants and referees ahead of the technology’s introduction into live games in the 2017/18 season, where it will have an immediate impact on the different decisions. However, the referee will still have the final say.
“Offline” tests to take place in the background
The offline tests in 2016/17 will take place in the background and there will be no communication between the referees and the video assistants. Live tests in friendlies and trainings will run alongside the offline tests so that practical experience can be gathered ahead of the next step. The video assistants will be active, retired or former Bundesliga referees who are still involved with the education of referees at the highest level. They will not follow the games from a van at the stadiums but will instead monitor them from a central hub in Köln, where they will be able to monitor the complete TV production coverage available to them.
Further measures will also take place during the offline testing period, such as, the regular education and publishing of educational content for video assistants to help the collaboration with Bundesliga referees, recording how long interventions take and the number of possible intervention options, monitoring the camera position needed to give the video assistants the best possible view of the relevant match situation, evaluating the different ways that the video assistants can be used in the four aforementioned situations, developing the technology available for the tests, as well as reporting back and coordinating with FIFA, IFAB and other participating leagues and federations. There will be an analysis and evaluation of the test results as well as a presentation of the interim results after the first half of the Bundesliga season at the beginning of next year.
The German Football Federation (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) will begin testing the use of video assistants from this weekend with the start of the 2016/17 Bundesliga season. German football wants to be at the forefront of digital technology in football by testing this technical development at the highest level. There will be up to four Bundesliga matches with access to the technology and as written in the laws of football by the International Football Association Board it will be used to confirm four different decisive match situations: scoring goals, penalties, sending-offs and player confusion with respect to yellow and red cards.
There will be two different periods of testing in the Bundesliga. The first will be ‘offline’ tests in the 2016/17 season where the video assistant will have no bearing on the game – this phase will be used to train both video assistants and referees ahead of the technology’s introduction into live games in the 2017/18 season, where it will have an immediate impact on the different decisions. However, the referee will still have the final say.
“Offline” tests to take place in the background
The offline tests in 2016/17 will take place in the background and there will be no communication between the referees and the video assistants. Live tests in friendlies and trainings will run alongside the offline tests so that practical experience can be gathered ahead of the next step. The video assistants will be active, retired or former Bundesliga referees who are still involved with the education of referees at the highest level. They will not follow the games from a van at the stadiums but will instead monitor them from a central hub in Köln, where they will be able to monitor the complete TV production coverage available to them.
Further measures will also take place during the offline testing period, such as, the regular education and publishing of educational content for video assistants to help the collaboration with Bundesliga referees, recording how long interventions take and the number of possible intervention options, monitoring the camera position needed to give the video assistants the best possible view of the relevant match situation, evaluating the different ways that the video assistants can be used in the four aforementioned situations, developing the technology available for the tests, as well as reporting back and coordinating with FIFA, IFAB and other participating leagues and federations. There will be an analysis and evaluation of the test results as well as a presentation of the interim results after the first half of the Bundesliga season at the beginning of next year.
