Sebastian Kehl: VAR has made football fairer

Sebastian Kehl believes that VAR has made football fairer on the whole, even though Borussia Dortmund were lucky not to concede a penalty against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.

Borussia Dortmund came away with the three points against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening, with goals from Julian Brandt and Jude Bellingham securing a 2-1 win. But the Eagles were left aggrieved after they were denied what looked like a clear penalty late in the first half.

With the scores level at 1-1, Jesper Lindstrøm was brought down inside the box by Karim Adeyemi. Despite appeals from the Eintracht Frankfurt players, the referee and VAR both decided against awarding them a spot-kick. Although referee Sascha Stegemann admitted after the game that the home side should have had a penalty.

Eintracht Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krösche was left annoyed and lamented the fact that VAR did not intervene after the referee made the mistake.

Sebastian Kehl has now commented on the issue. And while the Borussia Dortmund sporting director believes that Eintracht Frankfurt should have had a penalty, he does not think that it is time to question the use of VAR. Kehl told WAZ that he believes VAR has made football fairer in many situations since its introduction to the sport.

"“The past has shown that the video assistant has resolved a great many blatantly wrong decisions fairly and justifiably enough. Questioning everything again now is not the right way to go.”“During the game, I assumed that the situation was checked and therefore acceptable. The pictures speak a different language, of course. The interaction between referees is always in need of improvement, we’ve also been sufferers – and yesterday we were lucky for once. But VAR has made football fairer in many situations – especially when it comes to offside decisions.”"

Borussia Dortmund have seen a number of controversial refereeing decisions go against them in recent seasons. And Saturday’s game was one of very few occasions where they got lucky. Next up for the Black and Yellows is a trip to Denmark to take on FC Copenhagen in the UEFA Champions League.