On December 3, Beijing time, the dust settled in the Qatar World Cup group stage, and all 16 teams advanced were produced. Unlike previous World Cups, the use of technological means to assist in the green field has become the object of hot discussion. Some football commentators believe that VAR penalty technology has become a "unpopular manufacturing machine" in this year's World Cup. It is undeniable that from VAR (Video Assistant Referee) to SAOT (Semi-Automatic Offside Recognition System), high technology is increasingly affecting football games and becoming an important basis for referees to final penalty.
case
Saudi won a surprise victory, SAOT became the focus
On July 1 this year, FIFA announced the launch of the SAOT system at the Qatar World Cup to assist the referee and VAR to make offside penalty faster and more accurate. According to FIFA, the SAOT system consists of three parts: a specially made camera, an in-ball sensor and an artificial intelligence system. Once an offside occurs, an alarm will be automatically issued to the VAR referee, and the VAR referee will communicate with the referee according to the situation. After the referee completes the penalty, the SAOT system will generate 3D animation images and play them on the large screen and TV on the field to intuitively show the players' offside position to the fans and audiences on the scene.
Qatar World Cup SAOT is enabled to assist the referee and VAR to make offside penalty. Photo/Xinhua News Agency
On November 22, Beijing time, the group match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia made the SAOT system the focus. In the first half of the game alone, Argentina was sentenced to 7 offsides and 10 offsides in the whole game, becoming the team with the most offsides in a single game since the adoption of VAR in the 2018 World Cup. At the same time, Argentina's three goals in 13 minutes were sentenced to invalid due to offside first. The team's coach Scaloni believes that two of them were "mm-level offside".
Argentina lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia in this game, revealing the biggest upset in the Qatar World Cup group stage. While the SAOT system "snatches the show", controversy and doubts follow, whether players on the court will not dare to move forward because of concerns about offside.
Focus
Multi-team goals or penalty kicks were cancelled due to VAR intervention
Argentina and Saudi Arabia is not the first time the SAOT system has shown its power. In the opening match between Qatar and Ecuador, Valencia scored a goal for Ecuador in 2 minutes and 39 seconds of the game. However, after nearly 2 minutes of VAR confirmation, the referee on duty made the penalty because Ecuador was offside first, and the goal was invalid. The animation playback given in the 13th minute shows that Ecuadorian player Estrada has one more calf position than the opponent's penultimate defensive player.
offside animation playback given by FIFA.
-12-12-12-1-2-Croatia -Croatia -Croatia -College -College -College -College -College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-College 3-C When Modric was preparing to give a penalty kick, the referee went to the sidelines to watch the video playback under the prompt from VAR, and finally decided that Croatia was offside first when attacking, and the penalty kick was cancelled. 3D animation image shows that Croatia's Lovren 's right shoulder is closer to the Belgian goal than Vertonheng, but only in a slight slight . This penalty has once again caused controversy. In the eyes of the outside world, in addition to affecting the mentality of the players on the court, this level of offside penalty is "meaningless."
Lovren (Croatia)'s shoulder edge is slightly in front of Vertonheng (Belgium)'s body. Photo/FIFA
defending champion French team also had a lot of opinions on the SAOT system. On November 30, in the third round of Group D match, the French team, who fell behind , Tunisia , 0-1, was tied by Griezmann at the last moment of injury time, but was sentenced for offside. It is worth mentioning that VAR did not intervene at the first time, but only intervened after the Tunisian player re-activated and the referee blew the end of the whistle. In the view of industry insiders, in addition to the offside of the French team, it is worth discussing, VAR's intervention time does not comply with the process regulations.
official
FIFA recognized Japan's second goal as valid
2-3rd round of the H Group H. Although Uruguay defeated Ghana 2-0, he ranked third in the group due to his disadvantage in the number of goals and was eliminated. Uruguayan coach Alonso pointed his finger at the penalty kick in the game against Portugal after the game, believing that "it was the (gap) caused by that penalty kick, and according to regulations, it was not a penalty kick. As FIFA admitted, that penalty kick did not exist." Alonso's resentment came from the showdown with Portugal on November 29. At the last moment of the game, Uruguayan player Jimenez fell into the penalty area. After VAR intervened, the referee determined that Jimenez made a handball foul. B Fee scored this penalty, helping Portugal lock the score at 2-0. However, VAR playback showed that Jimenez was supporting his arm to touch the ball at that time, according to the current football competition rules, the arms of the Uruguayan player were in a natural position and did not unnaturally expand his body area. Dominguez, a member of the Executive Committee of the Uruguay Football Association, later said that FIFA referees committee chairman Corina apologized for Uruguay's complaint and admitted that the referee accepted VAR's wrong opinion.
decided that the final qualifying result of Group H was a penalty kick, while the sudden change in Group E goal was also controversial. Japanese team did not appear before scored? In the last round of Group E, Japan reversed Spain 2-1, leaving behind extremely heated discussions.
htmlOn the evening of November 2, FIFA gave an official reply, showing the restored video of the Japanese team scoring the second goal, and pointed out that the ball did not completely go out of the bottom line in this attack. Although other camera positions may give viewers an illusion, the goal is valid. According to the rules of football matches, whether the ball is out of bounds is determined based on whether the vertical projection directly above the sphere is completely crossing the line, rather than whether the entity of the sphere has a line pressed. Foreign media reported that through high-tech projection, it can be found that the ball did not go out of the baseline before the Japanese team scored, and the ball overlapped with the baseline by 1.88 mm.FIFA said that the Japanese team's ball did not go out of the bottom line in the offense, and other camera positions may give viewers an illusion, but the goal is valid. Photo/Xinhua News Agency
However, FIFA did not provide convincing pictures and shots at the first time in response to this bottom line unsolved case, which also made the outside world question the use of high-tech in the World Cup again.
can assist referees in making more accurate and fair judgments after technology is introduced into football games, but from the interruption of the game caused by watching VAR replay to the "body hair-level offside" that affects the results of the game, there is obviously a difficult running-in period between technology and football.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Xiao
edited by Wang Chunqiu
proofreading by Liu Jun
