Bundesliga to abolish VAR in favour of ghost games

If you are a fan of football (or “soccer” as it is called in underdeveloped nations that know nothing of sports) you know that the introduction of the Video-Assisted Referee (VAR) has led to one outrage after another. Despite the ability of refs to review a situation on video, there still are way too many errors made that can sway the game to one team or another. 

Now the Germans seem to have found the solution. A study by two organisational economists from the University of Münster has gained a lot of traction amongst executives of the German Bundesliga. The study looked at the results of matches played in the 2019/2020 season before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. This season started out with regular games attended by thousands of fans and ended with several matchdays played as ghost games without fans. 

They found two important results. First, the home advantage disappeared in ghost games. Normally, teams have a distinctively higher chance of winning a game at home than away. It has long been argued that this is due to the support by their fans which motivates the home team and encourages it to fight more, run more, and shoot more. It may also be due to the influence of fans on referees who are inclined to penalise guest teams more harshly than home teams due to the constant interference by fans.

What the study of ghost games found was that the likelihood of a home team win was reduced as was the number of goals scored and points won by the home team. The home bias did, however, not disappear completely or even turn into an away bias. The lack of fans just turned the games into a closer contest that was more entertaining for the neutral observer. 

Second, they found that referees’ bias against the away team was reduced markedly. The number of penalties against the home team increased while the penalties against the away team decreased leading overall to a fairer outcome for both sides.

A person familiar with the debates in the Bundesliga said that by abolishing fans altogether, one could save the money for security at local games that has been a major cost factor for cash-strapped police forces across the country. If there are no fans, there is no need for security. On top of it, the Bundesliga would no longer need the expensive VAR technology since referees would be fairer to both teams. Said the executive: “This may even mean that some team other than Bayern Munich will have a chance at winning the title for once”.