German Cup faces disruption with fans planning major protests against VAR

BERLIN (AP) — The first round of the German Cup faces disruption this weekend with several supporter groups planning major protests against the use of video technology during games.

The new German soccer season begins Friday with Bundesliga teams Eintracht Frankfurt and Stuttgart facing lower-league opposition among other games, with the first round continuing through the weekend and Monday.

There will be no video assistance for referees in the first round for technical and financial reasons with 64 teams involved, but VAR will be introduced from the second round for the first time this season.

News agency DPA on Thursday published a statement it said was circulating among the fanbases of teams involved, declaring their intent to protest.

“We see football as it should be in the first round of the cup getting underway now – without VAR and thus authentic, immediate, and full of emotion. We want to return to this state permanently and therefore call for the abolition of the video assistant referee (VAR) in German football,” the statement said.

“While football thrives on intensity and rhythm, the flow of the game suffers significantly from protracted interruptions. We are also painfully aware that it has destroyed the game’s most emotional moments,” it continued. “Even fans who were initially open to and positive about the innovation now acknowledge, after nine years, that VAR has fundamentally altered the character of the game.”

Fans have interrupted games before in Germany using tennis balls or pyrotechnics. Last season’s German Cup final was played under a cloud of smoke from fans’ fireworks.

This season in Germany, the referee's video assistant's powers are to be expanded. They may intervene if a player is sent off with a second yellow card that is unjustified, and they may correct the referee if the wrong player is cautioned or sent off. Unlike at the World Cup , however, VAR will not intervene if corner kicks are awarded incorrectly.

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