The World Football Federation officially announced yesterday that the Qatar World Cup finals, which will be staged from November 21 to December 18 this year, will use semi-automatic offside identification technology (SAOT) , auxiliary referee and video assistant referee (VAR). for faster and more accurate offside decisions. This also means that following VAR technology, football has once again introduced new technological power.
According to this plan, will be equipped with 12 special cameras on the top of each stadium during the World Cup finals week to track each player at up to 29 points and transmit data at a frequency of 50 times per second.
However, the most visible change is believed to be the designated ball "Al Rihla" for the Qatar World Cup, because the new technology will have built-in sensors in the ball. The
sensor will send data at a frequency of 500 times per second to determine the passing point more accurately. The data collected by special cameras and in-ball sensors will be analyzed by the artificial intelligence system, which can make judgments on offside situations in just a few seconds.
However, if a sensor is placed in the ball, whether it will affect 's experience of using the ball , I believe we will have to wait for the players' feedback after taking the field.
Once offside is detected, the SAOT system will automatically send an alert to the video assistant referee to assist the VAR in making judgments. The VAR will then communicate with the referee on the field as appropriate.
After the referee's penalty is completed, SAOT will generate a 3D animated image, played on the large screen in the stadium and on TV to more intuitively display the specific position of the player's offside.
The new technology has been used in last year's Arabian Cup and World Cup. After testing by three universities, it can shorten the time for checking players for offside from the current average of about 70 seconds to 15 to 20 seconds.
The VAR technology currently used by major leagues often takes 40 seconds or even more than 1 minute to make an offside penalty, which is obviously much slower than the "immediate penalty" of previous eras, and sometimes even disrupts The rhythm of the game, I believe this technological innovation is to improve this situation.
Retired Italian whistler Collina, who is currently the chairman of the FIFA Referee Committee, emphasized that this technology cannot determine all complex offside situations, and there are still certain limitations in usage scenarios.
"I know some people will exaggerate and say that this is a 'robot referee', but in fact it is not the case. The referee and the assistant referee on the field are responsible for the final penalty. All technological means are to assist the referee ."
World Football Federation this time The purpose of adopting new technologies in the World Cup is obvious. If responds well to the application of this "black technology", it will inevitably be introduced into major leagues like VAR technology in the future.
