Living Football | Semi-Automated Offside Technology.
Living Football | Semi-Automated Offside Technology. Referees at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be allowed to utilize semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) to help them make quicker and more accurate offside calls. This announcement was made by FIFA on Friday.
It was a bold move by FIFA to implement VAR in this year’s World Cup. World Football Federation President Gianni Infantino remarked that semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) is an evolution of the VAR systems that have been implemented around the world and that it will provide the best possible experience for the teams, players, and fans who will be traveling to Qatar in November.
SAOT
The SAOT system, as stated by FIFA, uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the stadium’s roof to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch, while the sensor positioned in the center of the tournament’s official match ball “Al Rihla” sends data 500 times per second, allowing a very precise detection of the kick point.
Within a matter of seconds, artificial intelligence will evaluate the information gathered by the cameras and the ball sensor to determine if an offside has occurred. Once an offside position is recognized, the SAOT system will deliver an automated offside notice to the video match officials team, writes Xinhua.
After the verdict has been verified by the VAR and the referee on the pitch, the SAOT will then construct a 3D animation to be exhibited on the large displays in the stadium and on TV, which presents the greatest possible views for an offside position.
According to FIFA’s Director of Football Technology & Innovation Johannes Holzmuller, the new technology has been tried out at several test events, including the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 and the FIFA Club World Cup 2021.
The average time for a VAR offside check has decreased from 70 seconds to 25 seconds during testing, and the 3D animation may help improve connections with fans, he said in a news conference broadcast online.
It is clear that the amount of serious mistakes in football has been drastically cut with the implementation of VAR. We think that semi-automated offside technology can take us a step further. We’ll have a great resource to help officials make the right calls.