Jurgen Klopp has called for the introduction of a formal challenge system in football to enable managers to contest refereeing decisions during a match.
The Liverpool boss was speaking in the wake of controversial moments involving both him and his former club over the past week.
The 55-year-old has been charged by the FA over comments made about Paul Tierney, who took charge of the Reds’ tempestuous 4-3 win over Tottenham on Sunday (Sky Sports).
Two days earlier, Klopp’s previous employers Borussia Dortmund were incensed over Karim Adeyemi not being given what looked a blatant penalty in their 1-1 draw at Bochum in the Bundesliga.
In an interview with German publication Kicker today (via France 24), the Liverpool manager said that the challenge systems in other sports act as an example as to why he wants it introduced in football, referencing the incident from BVB’s game last Friday.
He called it “an interesting idea for football” and said that a challenge system “would be a solution to avoid something like that happening again in the future”, stressing: “There are many good examples of how this can work. In field hockey, for instance, the challenge has long proven its worth.”
In relation to the Adeyemi penalty incident, Klopp added that a review “was the least the VAR should have done” and that he “no longer understood the world” when learning that no spot kick was given in that instance.
A formal challenge system already exists in several other sports, such as NFL, basketball, rugby league and tennis, but would it work in football?
The thinking behind the introduction of VAR a few years ago was that, in enabling officials to correct clear and obvious errors, there should be fewer controversies over decisions during matches.
Unfortunately, in the Premier League at least, it’s had the opposite effect, with its continually flawed implementation leaving managers, players and supporters fuming on a near-weekly basis.
In light of some of the awful decisions involving Liverpool this season, and the overall standard of officiating in the English top flight, you can see why Klopp is advocating for the introduction of formal challenges.
For that to happen, though, some strict ground rules need to be laid down first. How many challenges would each manager be entitled to per match? What category of decisions could they formally contest? Would it further disrupt the flow of a game which could already spiral beyond the 100-minute mark?
A challenge system could be an interesting idea in theory, but frankly it shouldn’t be needed, as professional referees ought to be doing better than creating controversy every week through moments of incompetence, especially in an era when they have the safety net of VAR.