Additional Assistant Referees

[The Referee]

When and why did UEFA scrap these?

tbh, I didn't notice their absence (because they didn't do much) but now I think about it, I don't remember seeing them last season and I'm just curious as to where they've gone. Anyone know?

 

[Nij]

When and why did UEFA scrap these?

tbh, I didn't notice their absence (because they didn't do much) but now I think about it, I don't remember seeing them last season and I'm just curious as to where they've gone. Anyone know?

Anything that an AAR can do, GLT and VAR together can do better. Even without VAR, the usefulness of AARs is... not sufficiently evidenced.

It might have made sense to keep them when GLT was first coming in (I'm entirely unconvinced that they do anything useful, if an AR is doing their job well) but now that it's established, it alone makes them redundant. Add in VAR, and you've got a better way to use experienced officials than spend 95 minutes hoping they might be useful twice.

 

[Russell Jones]

Anything that an AAR can do, GLT and VAR together can do better. Even without VAR, the usefulness of AARs is... not sufficiently evidenced.

It might have made sense to keep them when GLT was first coming in (I'm entirely unconvinced that they do anything useful, if an AR is doing their job well) but now that it's established, it alone makes them redundant. Add in VAR, and you've got a better way to use experienced officials than spend 95 minutes hoping they might be useful twice.

An entirely fair and reasonable point of view. And one with which I fundamentally disagree

Having now worked with Comms myself, I understand just how much ALL the officials can better assist the centre referee, even when it appears they are doing very little indeed! And the beauty of this system (versus VAR) is that it is immediate and doesn't interfere with the flow of the game. Through the combination of the 4th Official and 2 AARs you have all three of the critical areas covered with an extra pair of eyes / different angle ... the two penalty areas and the area in front of the benches. Also, whilst I totally agree that a good AR is worth their weight in gold, they will only be able to help out the centre ref with fouls a certain amount, especially given their overriding (and difficult) priority to monitor both offsides and ball in/out of play

 

[onthebrink]

I always thought that it was a bit of a lazy media cliche that 'the AARs just stand around doing nothing'. There were obviously some cases where they failed to intervene as they should have done, just as poor officials in various capacities sometimes do so, but Howard Webb always seemed to appreciate them and there were times when audio conversations were released which indicated their use in making a decision. Certainly, I thought that the general officiating standards in Euro 2012 and Euro 2016 were high and probably a bit better than previously.

They stopped using the AARs in UEFA competitions at the end of the Europa League last year (I think it might have been the semi-finals, if they didn't have them for the final as they had VAR.) I think it was felt it has become obsolete with the gradual introduction of VAR because VAR can pick up more than the AARs can - additionally you can't really be having VAR and AARs on the same games because of the requried resources. They're already using an extra referee for each VAR game (because the Fourth Official was an assistant when they had AARs) and there are only so many referees at the required level to go around.

 

[Peter Grove]

Anything that an AAR can do, GLT and VAR together can do better. Even without VAR, the usefulness of AARs is... not sufficiently evidenced.

It might have made sense to keep them when GLT was first coming in (I'm entirely unconvinced that they do anything useful, if an AR is doing their job well) but now that it's established, it alone makes them redundant. Add in VAR, and you've got a better way to use experienced officials than spend 95 minutes hoping they might be useful twice.

That might be true for the UCL but not for the UEL - they don't have VAR until the final. Also, to say that GLT takes the place of the AAR's is a little wide of the mark. AAR's were there to do a lot more than just look for the ball crossing the goal line. I agree with @onthebrink that AAR's got something of a bad rap because they only communicated via a closed comms system, so a lot of what they did, went unnoticed.