World Cup 2022 to feature semi-automated offside technology with ball sensors and cameras

bit of breaking news it concerns this

year's world cup in qatar in the last

few minutes fifa have confirmed that

they are going to be using new

semi-automated offside technology in the

tournament amazing this means specialist

cameras will track each player using

data to spot potential offsides

automatically providing support to

officials with the aim of quicker and

more accurate decisions yeah this

technology actually was used at the club

world cup an arab cup and follows the

first

world cup to use var four years ago

here's fifa's video to explain all about

the new technology

a sensor in the centre of the ball sends

inertial data 500 times per second

allowing a more precise detection of the

kick point compared to conventional

broadcasts and optical tracking which

are limited to 50 frames per second

in addition

12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted

underneath the roof of each stadium

track the ball and 29 points on the body

of each individual player 50 times per

second calculating their exact position

on the pitch

the 29 points include all limbs and

extremities that are relevant for

offside calls allowing the team in the

video operation room to know the exact

position of a player at any given moment

all player and ball data is processed in

real time by artificial intelligence

which triggers alerts in the video

operation room when an offside position

is detected

the system constantly tracks an alert

once the ball is received by a player

who was in an offside position when the

ball was played

the video match officials validate the

proposed decision

by manually checking the automatically

selected kick point and the

automatically created offside line

the offsite decision is then

communicated to the referee via audio

headset

for improved communication to the fans

after the offside decision has been

confirmed by the referee

a replay animation is created and shown

in the stadium and on tv

well let's recap the key points from the

video then there will be 12 cameras in

each stadium tracking 29 data points on

each player including each limb and

their extremities as well added to that

there's a sensor in the ball as we saw

used at the tournament sending data 500

times a second making it incredibly

precise when the ball is kicked if the

ball is received by an attacker in an

offside position the technology then

sends an automated offside alert to the

video officials who then review the

footage manually and the process which

is expected to be quicker than the

current var setup is then confirmed by

the referee and a 3d animation created

by the technology will be shown on

screens in the ground and on tv

broadcasts

although the implementation of vir has

been very successful we are aware that

there are some aspects that need to be

improved and among them certainly

offside it takes too long

to make

a final decision on

offside incidents particularly when the

incidents are very difficult to be

assessed

we

decided to develop

new technologies to try

to

limit the time needed and also

to be more accurate

our objective is uh to

prepare the referee

as best as possible

to avoid to use the technology but the

technology is there to to avoid that

a mistake is committed

even the best referee can commit a

mistake he's a human being we know it

in average on a global level it takes 70

seconds

until the decision for an offside

incident is made

so that means 70 seconds that the

players have to wait on the pitch the

referee have to wait on the pitch but

also the fans the audience have to wait

so therefore we said okay this is

something we want to improve and so we

our main objective our main goal was to

make this process faster as well as more

accurate or as accurate as possible

fifa president johnny infantino said

semi-automated offside technology is an

evolution of the var systems that have

been implemented across the world this

technology is the culmination of three

years of dedicated research and testing

to provide the very best for the teams

players and fans will be heading to

qatar later this year

well as we said the technology which

last year was tested at manchester

city's etihad stadium has been used at

the club world cup and arab cup teams

who have qualified for the tournament

will meet with fifa next week for

clarity

on the new system let's uh speak to

former premier league referee dermot

gallagher

very good morning to you i mean what's

your reaction to this news first of all

i think it's very exciting i think when

you see change and a major change like

this

it brings a new dawn to football it

brings a new way of playing

it's going to bring accuracy and i think

as well as that is going to speed

everything up which is what everybody

wanted we saw situations

in uh champions league in the premier

league last season where very very tough

offsides took

time because of complexity of them this

will eliminate most of that which has

got to be a good thing

how much help will referees get then do

you think from this new technology

tournament

i think um they'll embrace it pretty

honestly um you know it's it's so

accurate you know the problem with the

var that they have is the start point

but the start point is when is the ball

kicked and sometimes you've got to check

so far back when the ball's kicked

the ball travels a long distance you've

then got to find out where the attacker

is in relation to the defender and it

takes time we've seen that

this constantly tracks the player it

constantly tracks the ball

and it knows instantly at what point the

ball was played where the defender was

in relation to the attacker and from the

30 35 seconds on average which it takes

in the premier league to decide the var

whether it's offside or not that's down

to one second

i think on the back of that the fact

that it's going to be relayed very very

quickly to the screens to show everybody

in the stadium which eliminates all this

doubt that people have in their minds

it goes to the broadcasters i think it's

a major step forward

yeah the technology is mind-blowing

isn't it we looked at the the video that

fifa

that fifa put out i mean the sensor in

the ball is the thing that really

strikes me because we've seen the lines

on the pitch we can kind of see but but

the sensor in the ball is is kind of new

level is it how reliable is it though

well

it's got to be foolproof hasn't it

you're going to showcase this at the

biggest tournament in the world you know

the biggest stage you can see the world

cup

so they must be very very short it's

going to happen it's been tested in the

arab cup it was tested in the club

championships

so i can't see there's anything wrong

with it they wouldn't take that chance

you know it's a chance that you can't

take

so they're very very happy with it i

think what we've got to do now we've got

to as i say embrace it it's probably the

right word you know people had doubts

about goal on technology their doubts

about var but now you see people saying

we want it further down we want to

cascade it down so already people want

it more and more i think the fact that

this has moved on another step has got

to be a good thing for football

and

fifa have said that offside calls

usually take around 70 seconds derma of

course we've seen in the premier league

last season some take a lot longer than

that but

is this going to make it all quicker i

mean is that is that the ultimate

goal to sort of make these decisions as

quick as possible

oh definitely pete you know as i said

some of them are very very complex you

know

when a ball travels a long way that

makes it much tougher for the var

because they have to find a start point

where did the ball get kicked from

and it's the relationship between the

defender and the attacker and it isn't

always as easy as people going oh yeah

he's offside i see it there because the

ball moves so fast the players move so

fast

forwards aren't their runs they shake

their bodies differently to defenders we

know that they lean forward

there's a lot of complex decisions to be

made within one decision and i think

this will take it all out as you see the

video which will put me out of business

if that lady gets a job like that

regular um it tracks all the bones and

parts of the body that can score a goal

um so i think

when i've seen that video and i've

researched it looked into it it looks

absolutely fantastic

there's going to be a human element

though derma hasn't there because

football is decisions are made in terms

of who's interfering with play and and

things like that so

the the assistant referees are still

going to have to make judgments the

technology is there to help them if

people will be worried i guess that

eventually refs and assistant refs won't

be needed and we'll just have robots

running the game

it's not there to replace it's there to

supplement and that's what i'd like to

make very very clear you know the

assistants still have to make their

judgement they still have to decide is

there an offside offence they will let

it run if it's tight we saw that in a

premier league but the assistants are so

good that when a player is offside and

they're convinced it's offside they will

flag and i think the one thing about var

that we saw with assistance it

highlighted how accurate they are how

tough a decision it is i don't think

anybody until we saw var deciding in the

premier league on offside decisions had

any idea of the complexity that these

guys operate on match after match after

match

um

we heard kalina there

as well saying that

there's no tolerance levels if you're

offside you're offside so is this going

to mean that those razor thin marginal

ones that have been so contentious are

sort of going to be gone now do you

think

well offside is offside p it's it's

offside is offside in the premier league

still because

if the lines show the players offside

the thing is

once you start having a tolerance level

it's a bit like when i play rob wooden

at golf you know his ball lands three

inches from the cup and he says you know

you're going to give me that you know

the next ball lands six inches from the

cup he said you're gonna give me that

and well it's only three inches well

that's what happens and i think

tolerance level is all very well but you

have to have a start point and with

offside it's not subjective it's

accurate so it is yes he's offside no

he's not offside i think that's where

it's got to be

making pot every single one of them made

every single one he's never had an

approach shot land three inches from the

cup

great stuff he had about 12 foot that he

wanted to give me the other morning

does not surprise me david great to see

you mate thanks so much for coming on

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