On Sunday the NY Times ran an article about Steinhaus titled "The Referee Would Like You to Watch the Game, Not Her" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/sports/soccer/referee-bibiana-steinhaus-.html
Given she clearly sat down for an interview, there's more than a hint of irony to the title and her quote.
I'm wondering what Plan B might be, in case there is a communication failure between the game site and Moscow. Quite unlikely, but possible due to a true technical problem or malfeasance on someone's part. Say Team A is awarded a PK, foul not seen by the referee but picked up by the VAR, and makes it early in the match. Later, a similar situation going the other way, but the VAR system is momentarily down. Team B is on the losing side both times. How will FIFA explain this?
MLB, NFL, major college football conferences have been using this model for several years. MLB and NFL do it in NY City. College conferences do it in in location central to their conference. None have ever reported having any issues and no media have ever suggested its been an issue.
It's the most logical way of doing things. Russia 2018 will use 12 stadiums, but there will never be more than two matches being played at once. One central location is the best way to ensure as much consistency as possible. Of course there will still be issues and since it's the world cup, they'll be massively overblown.
This statement alone is enough to fuel conspiracy theories. Why would a central location lead to more consistency if only the named match officials are supposed to adjudicate the game? I mean, if you really want consistency, don't appoint VARs to the World Cup and just have Busacca do it all himself. The big difference between FIFA and most domestic professional leagues--of any sport--is that the appointed match officials are not permanent employees of FIFA. Match officials are named by FIFA and then, per the LOTG, they are entrusted with enforcing the Laws and their decisions are final. FIFA does not interfere with the actual officiating of matches. If you put three of those match officials in a central location, filled with FIFA staff, you have seriously blurred that line. And when international football and FIFA, specifically, is a world where conspiracy theories already abound, it's a recipe for disaster. Logistically, don't get me wrong. It makes sense. Having mobile booths outside each stadium paying for the travel of a VAR, VAR2 and AVAR seems foolish and wasteful when you can do it from one central location. But there's something to be said about making the video officials part of the officiating team, traveling together and getting them in one place, building camaraderie and trust. And it also helps with transparency.
Totally agreed on this for the World Cup. For the Bundesliga, I find it somewhat strange that all VARs have to travel to Cologne each matchday instead of going to the stadium with the refereeing team. It is not clear that the traveling costs are reduced this way anyway.
Matchday 12 Friday, 8:30pm Stuttgart - Dortmund: Frank Willenborg, Arne Aarnink, Holger Henschel, Tobias Christ, Tobias Welz Saturday, 3:30pm Bayern Munich - Augsburg: Markus Schmidt, Thorben Siewer, Christof Günsch, Martin Petersen, Dr. Robert Kampka Hoffenheim - Eintracht Frankfurt: Felix Zwayer, Thorsten Schiffner, Marco Achmüller, Dr. Matthias Jöllenbeck, Christian Dingert Leverkusen - RB Leipzig: Harm Osmers, Dominik Schaal, Marcel Pelgrim, Dr. Martin Thomsen, Dr. Jochen Drees Mainz - Cologne: Dr. Felix Brych, Mark Borsch, Stefan Lupp, Benjamin Brand, Tobias Welz Wolfsburg - Freiburg: Manuel Gräfe, Markus Sinn, Jan Neitzel-Petersen, Patrick Ittrich, Wolfgang Stark Saturday, 6:30pm Hertha Berlin - Mönchengladbach: Bastian Dankert, Rene Rohde, Markus Häcker, Thomas Gorniak, Tobias Stieler Sunday, 3:30pm Schalke - Hamburg: Robert Hartmann, Christian Leicher, Markus Schüller, Timo Gerach, Wolfgang Stark Sunday, 6pm Werder Bremen - Hannover: Benjamin Cortus, Florian Badstübner, Dr. Martin Thomsen, Norbert Grudzinski, Günter Perl No real big game this week. Zwayer back in action, Aytekin in the Second League, Steinhaus in the Third League.
The VAR confirmed this penalty call today: https://streamable.com/odza2 Apparently the VAR didn’t just say it wasn’t a clear and obvious error. According to Brych, he confirmed contact on the knee. Brych now says, like the rest of the world, he doesn’t see the contact he thought he initially saw. What are we doing?
The VAR experiment has been an absolute mess in the Bundesliga. Really hope they'll do it better at the World Cup next year.
In Buli (as well as in Serie A and Primeira Liga) refs are at least training using it correctly. How are all the other refs being prepared for WC?
This was not changed to red via VR: https://streamable.com/7a2p6 In theory, I've got no problem with that. If we truly have a "clear and obvious" standard, then it has to be a glaringly obvious SFP miss. I think, in a classroom, every referee says this is a red card. But you couldn't get 95% of fans to agree this was a certain red card. If we held that very, very high bar for VAR intervention, maybe this experiment has a chance. But I don't think that can be done and, thus far, we've seen absolutely no consistency of application and intervention.
Was fan opinion at some point part of what VARs are told is "clear and obvious"? Frankly if that's not clear and obvious then I don't know what those words mean. I mean if VAR misses this then shit what's the point.
Elleray has used verbiage about how 95 out of 100 people "in football" would agree on a decision in order for a VAR to intervene. It goes along with the new IFAB mantra of "what would football expect?" (which is now codified in the LOTG):
http://www.sportschau.de/fussball/allgemein/videobeweis-zwei-assistenten-100.html Two VARs from now on: one to look at contentious scenes, the other to keep an eye on play while the first one does so. Matchday 13 Friday, 8:30pm Hannover - Stuttgart: Christian Dingert, Tobias Christ, Jan Neitzel-Petersen, Robert Kempter, Robert Hartmann, Sven Waschitzki Saturday, 3:30pm Dortmund - Schalke: Deniz Aytekin, Christian Dietz, Eduard Beitinger, Daniel Schlager, Guenter Perl, Martin Petersen RB Leipzig - Bremen: Sascha Stegemann, Christian Fischer, Mike Pickel, Guido Winkmann, Wolfgang Stark, Robert Kempter Freiburg - Mainz: Daniel Siebert, Lasse Koslowski, Jan Seidel, Markus Schmidt, Felix Zwayer, Florian Heft Eintracht Frankfurt - Leverkusen: Patrick Ittrich, Norbert Grudzinski, Sascha Thielert, Frank Willenborg, Benjamin Cortus, Patrick Alt Augsburg - Wolfsburg: Tobias Stieler, Dr. Matthias Joellenbeck, Christian Gittelmann, Dominik Schaal, Tobias Welz, Christof Guensch Saturday, 6:30pm Moenchengladbach - Bayern Munich: Manuel Graefe, Guido Kleve, Markus Sinn, Tobias Reichel, Dr. Jochen Drees, Benedikt Kempkes Sunday, 3:30pm Hamburg - Hoffenheim: Bastian Dankert, Rene Rohde, Markus Haecker, Holger Henschel, Marco Fritz, Tobias Reichel Sunday, 6pm Cologne - Hertha Berlin: Bibiana Steinhaus, Christof Guensch, Thomas Stein, Florian Heft, Guido Winkmann, Daniel Schlager Aytekin with a huge derby, with Schalke just climbing above Dortmund for the first time in years and Dortmund's trainer Bosz could be sacked with a loss. Graefe back with a big match as Bayern looks to continue their 100% record under trainer Heynckes at Moenchengladbach, a place they've always found tricky. Steinhaus with her third Bundesliga appointment, her second involving Hertha Berlin, with Cologne yet to win a game in the Bundesliga but buoyed from back-to-back wins in the Europa League.
Dortmund just scored off a handball. The VAR did not intervene. Either they couldn’t tell if the ball was already over the line or not (it seemed obvious it wasn’t, but who knows) or they determined it wasn’t clearly and obviously deliberate. I don’t think either option is really defensible. Seems like another case of VR failing.
That highlights package only shows two angles, with the second being the worst possible (because you can't tell if the all is over the line). There was an additional angle from outside the left (goal-facing) post, but from over the goal line. You could see pretty clearly the ball struck his raised arm prior to the ball entering the net. Really, the only justification could be an argument for "not deliberate," but a raised hand on the goal line--even when things are happening fast--is really hard to excuse.
More VAR fun from Germany. This was reviewed by the referee and changed from yellow to red for DOGSO (not how many people are around the monitors in the central location, by the way): https://streamable.com/bb5so This penalty was annulled on the intervention of the VAR, without review by the referee: https://streamable.com/rxzld I'm not sure why the first involved an OFR and the second didn't. That alone must be frustrating for the referee. More importantly, though, are either of these clear and obvious errors? Yes, DOGSO is a supportable decision on replay, but so is a yellow for SPA--it's VERY close. And the penalty decision is interesting because while the goalkeeper takes a lot of the ball, the ball stays right there in front of the attacker and he gets chopped down. For a VAR to reverse that without allowing the referee to re-watch what he saw and called makes little sense to me.
Yellow cards for the players in the REF's face as he's on the headset to VAR officials after telling the players to back off!
I agree with the last sentence - but - 'allowing'? Are you implying that the VAR makes the decision as to whether the OFR sees the replay or not? I hope not - I would hope that it is always up to the OFR as to whether he wants to see it or not. And, after the first VAR situation, it is certainly strange that the OFR didn't look at the second.
Matchday 14 Friday, 8:30pm Freiburg - Hamburg: Benjamin Brand, Robert Schröder, Frederick Assmuth, Eduard Beitinger, Günter Perl, Christian Dietz Saturday, 3:30pm Bayern Munich - Hannover: Guido Winkmann, Christian Bandurski, Arno Blos, Dr. Robert Kampka, Tobias Welz, Benedikt Kempkes Hoffenheim - RB Leipzig: Daniel Siebert, Lasse Koslowski, Jan Seidel, Timo Gerach, Günter Perl, Bibiana Steinhaus Werder Bremen - Stuttgart: Bastian Dankert, Markus Häcker, Rafael Foltyn, Florian Heft, Dr. Jochen Drees, Johann Pfeifer Leverkusen - Dortmund: Robert Hartmann, Christian Leicher, Markus Schüller, Christian Dingert, Wolfgang Stark, Sven Jablonski Mainz - Augsburg: Frank Willenborg, Arne Aarnink, Holger Henschel, Mike Pickel, Marco Fritz, Robert Kempter Saturday, 6:30pm Schalke - Cologne: Tobias Stieler, Sascha Thielert, Christian Gittelmann, Christian Dietz, Harm Osmers, Dr. Martin Thomsen Sunday, 3:30pm Hertha Berlin - Frankfurt: Sören Storks, Thorben Siewer, Michael Emmer, Jan Neitzel-Petersen, Dr. Jochen Drees, Arne Aarnink Sunday, 6pm Wolfsburg - Mönchengladbach: Benjamin Cortus, Florian Badstübner, Thomas Stein, Norbert Grudzinski, Deniz Aytekin, Alexander Sather Aytekin gets a break as VAR after the crazy Ruhr derby last week, Hartmann with probably Peter Bosz's last chance in Leverkusen. First VAR assignment for Steinhaus as far as I remember. Gräfe with a Second League match.
Matchday 15 Friday, 8:30pm Stuttgart - Leverkusen: Deniz Aytekin, Eduard Beitinger, Michael Emmer, Patrick Alt, Benjamin Brand, Florian Badstuebner Saturday, 3:30pm Dortmund - Werder Bremen: Manuel Graefe, Robert Kempter, Markus SInn, Frederick Assmuth, Guido Winkmann, Patrick Alt RB Leipzig - Mainz: Patrick Ittrich, Norbert Grudzinski, Sascha Thielert, Sven Jablonski, Daniel Siebert, Dr. Matthias Joellenbeck Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayern Munich: Harm Osmers, Sven Waschitzki, Thomas Gorniak, Christian Gittelmann, Frank Willenborg, Robert Schroeder Hamburg - Wolfsburg: Christian Dingert, Tobias Christ, Timo Gerach, Jan Seidel, Robert Hartmann, Florian Badstuebner Saturday, 6:30pm Moenchengladbach - Schalke: Sascha Stegemann, Marco Achmueller, Mike Pickel, Arne Aarnink, Tobias Welz, Johann Pfeifer Sunday, 1:30pm Cologne - Freiburg: Dr. Robert Kampka, Dominik Schaal, Marcel Pelgrim, Soeren Storks, Marco Fritz, Johann Pfeifer Sunday, 3:30pm Hannover - Hoffenheim: Markus Schmidt, Thorben Siewer, Daniel Schlager, Markus Haecker, Wolfgang Stark, Lasse Koslowski Sunday, 6pm Augsburrg - Hertha Berlin: Martin Petersen, Tobias Reichel, Christian Fischer, Rafael Foltyn, Dr. Jochen Drees, Sven Waschitzki