IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/umiodp/294851.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects of the video assistant referee on games in the Bundesliga

Author

Listed:
  • Böttger, Tom
  • Vischer, Lars

Abstract

Referees and their assistants are faced with the challenge of making correct decisions in complex and high-speed game situations. Subconscious bias on the part of referees and the resulting systematic favouring of teams have already been shown many times in sports economics and impair fairness in football. Since the 2017/2018 season, the video assistant referee (VAR) has been used as a technical support for referees to correct clearly incorrect decisions. Based on 2,448 games and 1,880 match situations reviewed by the VAR from the 2019/2020 to 2022/2023 seasons, this study examines whether the VAR is a suitable instrument to counteract the bias of referees on the field. The analyses carried out reveal that the VAR is only able to accomplish this to a limited extent. Even with technical support, human bias remains in the decision-making process.

Suggested Citation

  • Böttger, Tom & Vischer, Lars, 2024. "Effects of the video assistant referee on games in the Bundesliga," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 4/2024, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:umiodp:294851
    DOI: 10.17879/46988527856
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/294851/1/1888247258.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17879/46988527856?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bias; Decision; Football; Rule; VAR;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General
    • Z21 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - Industry Studies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:umiodp:294851. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ilmuede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.