Referee Florian Badstübner during the second division game between FC Sankt Pauli and then second division club Werder Bremen in April 2022
Image: picture alliance / press photo agency ULMER
More transparency, more comprehensibility: In the future, referees should explain their decisions via microphone announcements, just like in the NFL. A first test run is to start at the Club World Cup.
fIn the future, soccer referees should use a microphone to explain their decisions to fans in the stadium and in front of the TV after checking the video evidence (VAR). This was announced by the rulers of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) on Wednesday after their meeting at London’s Wembley Stadium. This procedure will be used for the first time as a test at the Club World Cup (from February 1) in Morocco.
This should make the decisions more transparent and comprehensible. The test period is initially limited to one year and should primarily take place on the international stage. Discussions between the referee on the field and the video assistant remain secret, but the result should be briefly explained. The professional football league NFL proceeds in a similar way.
In football, fans in the stadiums have so far only been able to find out what has been checked and what the result of the check is when the VAR is used by information on the video walls.
The fact that injury time was calculated much more strictly at the World Cup in Qatar and was therefore usually longer than usual was rated positively by the IFAB. There was no breakthrough in dealing with some leagues’ suggestion of introducing temporary substitutions in cases of suspected concussion.
