Back in July, FIFA announced that Semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) will be used at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar scheduled to start on the 21st of November.
This would offer a support tool for the on-field officials as well as the video match officials thereby allowing for faster, more accurate and more reproducible offside decisions.
It will premiere at the UEFA Super Cup final clash in Helsinki, between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt on August 10, before being deployed in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
In a statement, Roberto Rosetti, UEFA’s chief refereeing officer said;
“UEFA is constantly looking for new technological solutions to improve the game and support the work of the referees.
“This innovative system will allow VAR teams to determine offside situations quickly and more accurately, enhancing the flow of the game and the consistency of the decisions.”
Building on the successful implementation of VAR technology, FIFA worked to fully harness the potential of technology in football and further enhance VAR. By working with various parties, they have been able to make improvements, including the SAOT.
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VAR’s manual method of linking lines across the pitch to players and selecting when the ball has been kicked will be replaced by the SAOT with the added advantage of improved visualisation for fans.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based technology will make use of 12 dedicated tracking cameras carefully positioned around the stadium to track the ball, and as many as 29 data points, which are relevant for making offside calls, to calculate each player’s exact position.
A sensor positioned in the centre of the ball, will send ball data in order to precisely detect the kick point. It is estimated that this technology will cut offside decision-making times from an average of 70 seconds currently obtained using video review methods down to within 25 seconds.
The chairman of FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, had this to say:
“VAR has already had a very positive impact on football and we can see that the number of major mistakes has already been dramatically reduced. We expect that semi-automated offside technology can take us a step further.
“We are aware that sometimes the process to check a possible offside takes too long, especially when the offside incident is very tight. This is where semi-automated offside technology comes in – to offer faster and more accurate decisions.”
At first glance, it seems like a good innovation to improve the game and address some of the major issues with the VAR technology. However, only when we see it fully in action can we reach a conclusion as to how much of a success it really is.
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