Moving to another city
Video assistant leaves the “Cologne Keller”
07/30/2025 – 10:42 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Since 2017, the video assistant has been assessing critical game scenes from the Bundesliga from a room in Cologne. It will be different in the coming year.
After eight years in action, a new phase is bursting for the video assistant in the Bundesliga. The coming season will be the last in the well-known video assist center in Cologne-Deutz. From the 2026/27 season, the company will be after Frankfurt am Main shifted-more precisely to the DFB campus.
Referee boss Knut Kircher gave the German press agency several reasons for the step: “Last but not least, the space requirements and the professional demands have increased.” More space is now needed – for example for training, meetings, media work and visitors on match days. The transparency should also be further improved.
The Bundesliga has been using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) since the 2017/18 season, the 2nd Bundesliga followed two years later. As a job for video assistants, the German Football League and the German Football Association had opted for a central facility in the Video Assist Center (VAC) from the start. Since then, this has been stationed in Cologne-Deutz and offered space for the simultaneous monitoring of up to ten games by VAR teams.
“The VAC in Cologne has reached its limits, it can no longer be expanded. Therefore it was clear that a move would be necessary,” said Kircher. The decision to integrate the new center directly into the DFB campus was obvious. There is also the headquarters of the association.
The name “Cologne Keller”, which was previously common in public, will no longer play a role in the new environment. Kircher said: “This name was always meant mockingly to pejorative, if so we won’t miss it.”