Soccer’s top governing body, FIFA, is testing new technology that tracks the movement of players’ limbs to detect whether they are in an offside position.
The system will be used in the 2021 Arab Cup, which begins this Tuesday, November 30 in Qatar, the host country of the 2022 World Cup. If successful, it could also be used in that competition.
FIFA has already named it: “Semi-automatic offside technology”.
The main novelty with respect to the current system is that it uses a camera installed on the roof of the stadium that “scans” in real time the movement of the players’ arms and legs and sends the information to the VAR instantly.
According BBC, in total it comprises between 10 and 12 cameras that collect up to 29 data points for each player 50 times per second.
Currently, VAR involves analyzing a video stream and drawing lines across the field to confirm if players are offside, but the footage does not always have the resolution or frame rate to determine the exact moment the ball leaves the field. a player’s foot, for example.
FIFA has found it frustrating for spectators to watch a match and wait several minutes after a seemingly legitimate goal to find out whether or not it will be disallowed. And customer frustration is not a good idea.
According to Pierluigi Collina, former referee and currently director of the FIFA refereeing area, “VAR has had a very positive impact on football because it has reduced the number of serious errors.” However, for the Italian, “there are areas in which we can improve, and the offside is one of them.”
FIFA is aware that the current VAR process to verify offside positions may take longer than other decisions, especially when the calculation is very fine, so it is doing its best to adjust that detail before Qatar 2022 .
Indeed, if the pilot test in the Arab Cup is successful, the “semi-automatic offside technology” could be used in the World Cup.
The Arab Cup, in which 16 teams play and takes place in six stadiums in Qatar, will be the most important test of this technology so far. It was previously tested in Germany, but the pandemic interrupted the investigation.