Top referee Felix Brych sees the video referee as a great help for the referees. “I think there is no alternative to VAR because it can protect me from these maximum mistakes and has often protected me. We can’t please everyone with VAR at the moment – and we won’t be able to please everyone either,” says the 47- Year-olds at Kicker meets DAZN podcast.
In an interview with the German Press Agency, Brych already described the VAR as a “double bottom” for the referees. “I wouldn’t want to whistle without VAR anymore,” said the Bundesliga referee, who is no longer internationally active. Nationally, he wants to continue to referee games in the new season.
Referees at introduction against it
In the podcast, the Munich referee recalled the introduction of the video assistant referee. “At some point the clubs said: ‘We need technical aids’. That’s how it started, we referees always resisted it. We always said: ‘We’d rather do the whole thing without it,'” recalled the doctorate in law. “Back then, the referees always resisted it. At some point it was decided, and it wasn’t easy for us at the beginning to combine analog and digital football.”
Most recently, referee Sascha Stegemann had to take a lot of criticism because of a mistakenly missed penalty in the 1-1 draw between VfL Bochum and Borussia Dortmund. The day after he had spoken. “Going forward is always quite good. That’s also the first form of processing, you have to admit the mistake to yourself,” said Brych.
“Basically, I think that we referees talk too much. I always held back, so I tried not to offer a little attack surface. That made me a bit untouchable and unapproachable. That’s not wrong at all abroad, because the players don’t challenge you all the time,” explained the multiple European and World Cup referee.
