What is it?
FIFA not too long ago announced that they will be using semi-automated offside technology at the Qatar World Cup. This post is a little explanation as to what it is and what I feel about technological advancement in football.
Motivation:
In Association football there is a rule in which an attacker can not be ahead of the last defender when the ball is kicked. This is to prevent “goal-hanging” where attackers will just wait next to the goal preventing the flow of the game. In 2018 Video Assisted referee was introduced to the game. This is where a group of referees at an external location will look at video replays of the game to assist the on-field referee in the decision-making process. This introduction has increased correct decisions from 82% to 94% (Sky Sports, 2022). However, the introduction of VAR has inadvertently increased the wait during games. As all play is obviously stopped during the decision-making process which can take up to a few minutes per decision.
This is where the implementation of this new technology comes in. The main aim of this implementation is to reduce waiting time and reduce human error which causes uncertainty amongst fans and players.
How does it work?
The 2 things required for offside rule is the position of the players on the field and also the exact moment when the ball is kicked. The ball will contain an inertial measurement unit which send data 500 times a second on the inertial data of the ball this means you can determine the exact moment there is a large change in intertia i.e. the ball is kicked. To track the players on the field 10-12 cameras are placed around the stadium specifically used for motion tracking of the 22 on field players. These cameras are used to calculate the exact 3D coordinates of the 29 important data points on each player. This allows referees to be provided with offside information within seconds of it happening drastically reducing waiting times.
This technology was shown in a grand competition for the first time on the 6th September 2022 when Chelsea faced Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Champions League. There was a fairly tight descision were Pulisic was deemed offside. Then a 3D render was shown to viewers for that extra peace of mind that the decision was the correct one.
My Opinion:
I think that this new implementation is a great advancement in the officiating of football. This tech is great to increase the flow of football and hopefully prevents the injury of plays during periods of play that are called offside after the fact. I think it’s great that linesmen would be instantly notified on their watches of the correct decision. As a football fan I have witnessed my fair share of tight decisions that seem subjective in my opinion. Also, I have always been critical of the current way that offsides are judged using VAR. This is because all camera angles aren’t straight so parallax error can come into to play causing some offsides to look completely onside and vice-versa from different angles. Also for such a system to work it is imperative that the lines drawn are parallel to the by-line to ensure the offside is judged correctly. The camera is constantly moving to record the action so drawing such a straight line in that short time-span will not end in consistently correct results. However, this new semi-automated version of the offside cuts out any human error from the equation and the animation will give us supporters peace of mind once a decision is made.
