FIFA to use new technology for offline position in world

FIFA will present new technologies to improve calls for offline position at the Qatar World Cup this year, using a camera system for tracking players' limbs.

FIFA said on Friday that it is ready to launch semi-automaticly automated technology for an out-of-play position (SAOT), which uses numerous cameras to track the players' movements plus has a top sensor and will soon display 3D images on the stadium screens in the tournament to help fans understand the arbitrator's decision.

It's the third consecutive World that FIFA presents new technologies to help judges. Goal line technology was ready for Brazil's 2014 tournament after a notorious referee mistake in 2010.

In 2018, the system THE VAR was introduced to help judges judge the game-changing incidents and appeared in Russia. The new offline system promises faster and more accurate decisions than currently dealing with the VAR system, even though the 2018 World World avoided major mistakes in decisions of a non-combat position. The debates have been sparked in European leagues ever since, especially when VAR officials draw the lines on screen on players for marginal calls. Those decisions have been ridiculed as <x0offside sculpture” due to small margins.

“Although these tools are very precise, this accuracy can improve”, said Pierluigi Collinin, who runs FIFA's arbitrator programme and led the 2002 World Cup final in the pre-technology age.

Each stadium in Qatar will have 12 cameras under the synchronized roof to track 29 data points in each player's body 50 times a second.

The data is processed with artificial intelligence to create a 3D offline position signaling to the team of VAR officials. A sensor in the match ball tracks his haste and gives a <x0-2-2-5x1> more precisely when the crucial passer-in is played to connect to line data for offline position, FIFA innovation director Johannes Holzmueler said through an online conference. Securing the biggest football event is a window for technological progress and avoiding the obvious mistakes that live in World Cup knowledge has been a goal of FIFA for a long time.

The hit ball by England's Frank Lampard, who crossed the gate line against Germany in 2010 but that was not accepted as a goal, almost immediately ended the opposition of then-President Sepp Blatter to grant judges technological aid. Later that day in South Africa, a clearly inaccurate decision to be out of place allowed Carlos Tevezin to score Argentina's first goal in victory of 3:1 over Mexico in 1/8 of the final.

In 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to advance from the group to its first World, since the early goal of striker Edin Jacobo vs. Nigeria was wrongly tried for positioning off play. Nigeria won 1:0. FIFA's attempt to prepare new technology “offide” for the World Cup slowed by pandemic COVID-19. Direct tests at the game took place at the Arab Cup in Qatar last December and FIFA's FIFA World Cup of Clubs, which was played in February in the United Arab Emirates. Within seconds after a possible position of off-play position, a specialist member of the VAR team can manually control the line created by the data for the attackers and defenders, as well as the point of the trailing, Holzmueler said. It's up to the top VAR official to announce the game referee for the right decision to their audio connection. This should last from 20 to 25 seconds compared to an average of 70 seconds currently for a complex call for offline status.

“Sometimes the length of review checks of controversial situations is undoubtedly very long”, Collin said, acknowledging that delays disrupt the course of matches. “For VAR officials time flies, but for the rest of us, the trainers, the players, the spectators, it's completely different”.

The same 3D animations of calls for offline status that will be used in the VAR room should then be available for broadcasters and appear on stadium screens, likely during the next stop in the match. Collin is enthusiastic about technology, less about the description often used as “robot fuel”.

I understand sometimes this is very good for newspaper headlines, but it's not like that”, the Italian official said, defending the key human component of decision-making in football.

Collin also agreed that improved technology would not end football's love for controversy and debate of key incidents.

“will still have room for discussion”, guaranteed Collin.