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It is now official and confirmed by FIFA that semi-automated offside technology will be used at the World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Divided opinions
Throughout the history of football matches and judging, some people have always strongly believed that judges favored one team over another. The trustworthiness of decisions brought about goals, offsides, and fouls is being questioned.
Although the fans’ opinions on connecting football and technology are divided, Qatar once again takes advantage of modern achievements to help ensure fairness in the Cup.
Some people believe that it will speed up the time needed for reaching offside decisions, while others consider referees useless and impotent in such a system, violating football tradition that way.
What is VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system and how does it work?
The usefulness of this technology reflects in more people – more eyes, working together to bring the right decision. A team of three people reviews decisions made by the main referee by watching video footage of the relevant occurrences.
The team consists of the main video assistant referee, his assistant, and a replay operator. They sit in a video operation room with various monitors showing different camera angles.
Each stadium in Qatar will count 12 cameras under the roof synchronized to track 29 data points on each player’s body 50 times per second. Data is processed with artificial intelligence to create a 3D offside line that is signalized to the team of VAR officials.
FIFA innovation director Johannes Holzmüller said “A sensor in the match ball tracks its acceleration and gives a more precise “kick point” – when the decisive pass is played – to align with the offside line data”.
A specialist member of the VAR team can manually check the data-created line for attackers and defenders and the kick point of the pass within seconds of a possible offside.
There are four situations when VAR can be used in the game. The first is for goals, the second is offside penalty decisions, the third is direct red card incidents, and the fourth is mistaken identity.
The process for reviewing a decision works in two possible ways: either the VAR team can recommend a review, or the main referee can request a review after making a decision.
It is true that a decision made by the main referee can be overturned but there must be a “clear error” for this to happen.
You can watch a video about the VAR system provided by FIFA on this link: https://youtu.be/
