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Join on Telegram Fez – FIFA will test the semi-automated offside detection during the Arab World Cup to kick off on November 30.
Pierluigi Collina, the Chairman of the FIFA referees committee, said that “the latest tests of the semi-automated offside detection technology at the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 are the most important to date.”
FIFA’s head of innovation, Johannes Holzmüller, highlighted that this technology is intended to make offside detection more reliable and faster. While the technology has already been tried in separate games “in Germany, Spain, and England,” he noted, it still needs to be tested during an entire tournament before FIFA can decide to adopt it.
The technology uses specialized cameras and a dedicated offside video assistant to detect offside situations.
In a statement, FIFA explained that the new technology will help referees to assess the moment when a player touched the ball and the position of each of their body parts in relation to other players.
Holzmuller confirmed that “a camera will be set-up under the roof of each stadium” to help collect data that will be sent over to operation rooms to assess offside situations, while the video technology will enable the Assistant Video Referee (VAR) to “validate and confirm the information.”
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He added that “Limb-tracking data extracted from the video will be sent to the operation rooms and the calculated offside line and detected kick-point is provided.”
Even if the offside technology passes the trial phase and is adopted for other FIFA tournaments, the officials in the VAR room and the main referee will still have the final in terms of offside assessment.
However, the semi-detection technology for offside situations is not similar to goal-line technology. The latter is more accurate and can tell whether or not the ball has crossed the goal line.
The trial of this new technology at the FIFA Arab Cup will serve to help FIFA decide whether to use it at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Collina stressed the importance of introducing technology and digitizing the game in both “pre-match preparation and the decision-making process matches.” He explained that a referee must analyze “not only the players’ position, but also their involvement in the move,” to decide in an offside situation.
According to the Chairman of the FIFA referees committee, the semi-automated offside detection “can not be fully automated” because “the assessment of interference with play or with an opponent remains in the referee’s hands.”
