"No Var is also no Solution": Implications from The DFB Pokal for Human Decision-Making without AI Support

The temporary non-use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the 2025 DFB-Pokal second round created a unique opportunity to study how a decision-making context unfolds when AI support becomes temporarily unavailable after stakeholders have become used to it. Drawing on publicly available statements from coaches, officials, journalists, and (former) referees, we analyse how stakeholders re-evaluate refereeing decisions in the absence of AI support. Our findings indicate that “no VAR is also no solution,” and that temporal AI discontinuation triggers a broader re-evaluation of the decision-making context along four dimensions: decision quality and expertise, measurability, emotional versus procedural fairness, and legitimacy and accountability. We develop a nomological net explaining how these evaluations are embedded in ongoing debates about the changing nature of the decision context and political dynamics surrounding referees’ (technological) authority, while technological and financial resources condition the feasibility of AI use. The study advances research on AI-enabled information systems by theorizing the consequences of temporal AI discontinuation.