Champs League to get ‘new’ camera tech for offside calls
Teams won’t take the knee before every game
NYON, Switzerland, Aug 3, (AP): The Champions League will use a camera-based system to judge tight offside calls in the group stage starting next month, UEFA said Wednesday.
The Semi-Automated Offside Technology, which was also approved last month by FIFA for the World Cup in Qatar, uses multiple cameras to more accurately track players’ limbs and the point when a key pass is made.
The technology promises faster and more accurate offside decisions than are currently made with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
UEFA said it will use the new system next Wednesday at the Super Cup game between European champion Real Madrid and Europa League winner Eintracht Frankfurt in Helsinki ahead of its Champions League debut on Sept. 6.
SOCCER
The system was tested at the women’s European Championship that finished Sunday in England and in the Champions League last season.
“UEFA is constantly looking for new technological solutions to improve the game and support the work of the referees,” its chief refereeing officer Roberto Rosetti said in a statement.
Controversial calls have often flared in European leagues where VAR officials draw on-screen lines over players for marginal calls. They have been mocked as “armpit offsides” because of the tiny margins.
Premier League players will no longer take the knee ahead of every match, but will do so at “significant moments” during the upcoming season in a gesture against racism.
The gesture, which started in June 2020 to show support for the Black Lives Matter campaign, will now be used more sparingly in order to “amplify the message that racism has no place in football or society.”
Premier League captains agreed that teams will take the knee ahead of this weekend’s opening round of games, for dedicated “No Room for Racism” matches in October and March, on Boxing Day, the
final round of the season and the FA Cup and League Cup finals.
The Premier League captains, who met last week, said in a joint statement: “We have decided to select significant moments to take the knee during the season to highlight our unity against all forms of racism and in so doing we continue to show solidarity for a common cause.”
United States at Wembley Stadium in October selling out in less than a day.
The game pitting the European champion against the reigning world champion was announced on Tuesday by England’s Football Association and will be played Oct. 7, subject to England having secured World Cup qualification in September.
The Lionesses’ official Twitter account posted an update early Wednesday that read: “YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. 65,000 tickets have already been sold for our October international against the United States!”
The team later said the game was sold out, but did not say how many tickets had been put up for general sale.