« It's not offside! »
Not a screen, but five screens that can be kept in view, on the headphones the referees in the stadium, tens of thousands of noisy football fans in the stands and the anxious question: Was that offside or not? Just no stress, keep cool head. Easier said than done.
An afternoon in the Video Assist Center (VAC) in the RTL building in Cologne-Deutz, someone wrote it first, since then it has been the « Cologne Keller » that causes excitement when a final decision is made in the stadium. In the basement, this means: capture the situation on the field, checking, drawing electronic offside lines, Senklot from the body parts of the kicking staff relevant to the decision. Foot? Or shoulder? And above all: as quickly as possible.
After ten minutes there was still no decision
I sit with the journalist colleague in front of the screens, he five, I five, next to it the operator, the slow motion, the nearby settings, the camera perspectives, the views that have an eye on the crucial scenes before and after and constantly displayed on request. This is not possible without clear commands. « It's not offside, » I scream. I should neither scream nor make such nonsensical claims. Knut Kircher, Managing Director Sport and Communication of the DFB-Schiedrichter GmbH, and says: « You should somehow decide now, you have been discussing almost ten minutes now. » Really now? In the real world of professional football, tens of thousands are waiting for a decision in the stadium: What are the Cologne basement actually in this damn Cologne cellar?
Everyone knows. Only an hour in the Cologne basement and you don't know where your head is. Var boss Jochen Drees says: « After serving in the basement, you need hours to be back on normal zero. »
Knut Kircher, Jochen Drees and Communication Manager Alex Feuerherdt organized the sports journalistic self -experiments in Cologne in cooperation with the Association of German Sports Journalists (VDS). In the end there was the highest respect for the stress in the basement and the collaboration of the referees in Cologne and in the stadiums of the Bundesliga. In particular, pulling the calibrated line in offside positions, dissolving foul or hand games in the penalty area not only require the highest concentration, but also rapid reaction and above all: quick decisions. Drees and colleagues ensure absolute transparency, nobody wants endless discussions, everyone wants comprehensible decisions. « Of course it's about right and wrong, but the biggest goal of our work is uniformity, » says Kircher. Ideally, the decision in the Champions League must be as understandable as in the district league.
The days in the Cologne basement are finally finally. Schiedsrichter GmbH will move to Frankfurt on the campus of the German Football Association (DFB). The technical possibilities are expanded there again.
