Gerhard Struber: Bristol City head coach says Championship should have VAR

Bristol City head coach Gerhard Struber believes the Championship should have VAR brought in to create “more fairness”.

The Robins saw a late equaliser disallowed for offside in their 1-0 defeat by Millwall on Saturday, resulting in a huge post-match melee involving staff and players from both sides.

Video assistant referees were brought into the Premier League at the start of the 2019-20 season, but in the Championship the technology has only been used in play-off finals since 2022.

“I am not a fan of VAR but this shows us the many signs, evaluations that with VAR the decisions are better and more fair,” Struber told BBC Radio Bristol.

“We should do everything for more fairness and the last game showed us this on a really good picture.”

As well as the Premier League, VAR is used in all the major leagues around Europe including the Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 and also in others including domestic competitions in the Netherlands, Turkey, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.

Struber said the quality of the Championship meant it should be implemented in England’s second tier.

“It’s not always so easy to deal and handle the game with [such a] high dynamic, [so] the referees they have everything in a good picture with the pressure with the atmosphere and the high dynamic,” Struber added.

“The Championship is one of the most attractive and interesting and dynamic leagues over the whole world and I would say this would deserve VAR.

“In many other countries, much lower league levels have a VAR and also many other coaches want to have VAR in the near future.”