During the regular season of this Bundesliga season, discussions about referees and video assistants were a constant companion. Some decisions – also approved by the VAR – caused a lot of excitement. Those responsible for the twelve upper house clubs would like to avoid such incidents in the forthcoming final phase. Therefore, some improvements were suggested in a survey conducted by the APA.
Austria Klagenfurt’s Peter Pacult was particularly often in a clinch with the referees. “Coaches make mistakes, players make mistakes and referees make mistakes too. But what must not happen is that video assistants make mistakes, and that has happened far too often,” criticized the Viennese and followed up: “It can’t be that there is heated discussion and arguments after every round. We are far from the ideal situation and that urgently needs to change. Clear, comprehensible guidelines are simply needed. When does the VAR intervene and when not.” Pacult’s suggestion: “I would reduce it to goal or no goal and leave everything else to the referee on the pitch.”
A suggestion also came from Austria sports director Manuel Ortlechner. “I just wish our referees had more courage in terms of a live check on the sidelines.” Rapid coach Zoran Barisic, on the other hand, stated: “I think that one should start with social skills and there is a need for improvement here.” Hartberg’s Markus Schopp locates “enormous potential for improvement in the interaction between referee and VAR”.
WAC coach Manfred Schmid is also not too good at talking to the video assistant. “The fact is that nobody is happy with it. Neither the fans, nor the coaches, nor the players – and most of the time not even the referees themselves. There is an urgent need for action.” However, he is aware that not all problems can be solved by the VAR. “Even with optimization, there will still be decisions worth discussing – but such clear mistakes as recently should simply not happen.”
Salzburg’s sports director Christoph Freund, on the other hand, described the VAR as an “absolutely sensible facility”. The majority of the decisions made are correct and not only help the referees, but also football as a whole. “But we still have areas that need adjustments, where poor communication has led to wrong decisions. There is definitely still room for improvement.”
LASK trainer Dietmar Kühbauer still has so many bad whistle in his stomach in the past few months. “Far too often after games we talk about decisions instead of football. That has to change again, but it’s not our responsibility.”
Ried trainer Maximilian Senft did not want to comment, referring to his short term in office. Altach’s Klaus Schmidt saw improvements in offside decisions, but complained about difficulties in interpreting the hand rule and foul situations.
Austria Lustenau’s Markus Mader came up with another point of criticism. “What bothers me the most is the fact that you can no longer be emotionally happy about a goal because everything is checked and maybe there was an offense somewhere on the pitch two minutes before. You’re just scared and you start to do it hope and pray.”
WSG Tirol trainer Thomas Silberberger in turn broke a lance for the referees. “All in all, they are doing a good job in Austria. Constant criticism of the referees is useless, but it is the easiest valve to use to get rid of frustration,” explained the 49-year-old.
Sturm Graz coach Christian Ilzer also showed restraint. “There are people responsible for the referee’s performance, so I assume that these people analyze the performance just as professionally or initiate processes for improvement as we do in our areas,” said the Styrian.