The first sports controversy in the Qatar World Cup 2022 It happened in the opening minutes of Qatar vs. Ecuador, the opening match. Enner Valencia scored with a header after a terrible start from goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb. And after a few minutes, the referee Daniele Orsato annulled the goal for offside.
It was an imperceptible action both for him and for the vast majority of viewers, but not for technology. sprung into action the semi-automatic Offside, implemented by FIFA for this tournament.
Finally, it did not affect the Ecuadorians much, who ended up winning 2-0 with a double from Valencia. But the question remained, how does the semi-automatic Offside work?
Offside and new technology in the World Cup in Qatar 2022
First, let’s remember what is offside, also known as offside. At the moment of a decisive action that leads to the rival goal, when the attacker receives the ball, there must be at least two opposing players between it and the goal. If there is one, or none, the attacking footballer is offside.
Now we go with the technology.
Each stadium of the Qatar 2022 World Cup has 12 cameras, where 29 points on the body of each player are tracked. The ball has an internal sensor that sends data to the VAR operating room 500 times per second, in order to allow a very precise assessment of when the pass was made.
Thus, if a player is very, very little ahead, the notification reaches the video arbitration room semi-automatically.
In the case of Ecuador’s goal, a soccer player had one foot forward when goalkeeper Al Sheeb came out. And for that foot, in addition to the goalkeeper’s departure, the offside occurred that annulled Valencia’s goal.
FIFA’s vision on semi-automatic offside
The legendary Pierluigi Collina, fifa Chief Referee, explained before the tournament that technology “It gives us the ability to be faster and more accurate in terms of offside decisions.”
Not everyone agrees with the application of this technology, since it often distorts the purpose to be sanctioned, which is to take advantage of the situation. For a finger of the hand, for an elbow that is advanced, a footballer does not take advantage of his rival. And that is semi-automatically punished by the new FIFA function.
For this reason, Collina points out, “The final decision always belongs to the match official: in VAR, the video assistant referee; on the field of play, the referee”.