Germany: video assistant referees added to the 2.Bundesliga and system made more transparent

Video assistant referees (VAR) has been used for all Bundesliga matches since 2017-18, and has now been extended to the 2.Bundesliga since the start of the 2019-20 season (Matchday 1 on 26 to 29/07/2019), stated the DFL on 05/08/2019. The club leaders of the German second division had made the decision to use the VAR (with the same technology as the Bundesliga) on 21/03/2019.

Before the start of the third Bundesliga season with the use of VAR on 16/08/2019, the League and the German Federation informed the representatives of all Bundesliga clubs of developments in the field of refereeing and video assistance, via workshops organized on 05/08/2019. The bodies also presented to the clubs the "Video-Assist-Center" in Cologne (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) where the video assistants are grouped. This replay center has been redesigned and enlarged with the number of observation and analysis stations moving from six to ten.

The German league and federation promises, in 2019-20, a faster flow of information and greater transparency from the video assistance center, during the video…