FIFA tech promises faster, accurate offside decisions in Qatar
VAR offside decisions will be quicker and more accurate at the World Cup after the introduction of new technology developed by FIFA over the last three years, referees’ chief Pierluigi Collina said on Friday.
The “semi-automatic offside technology” will rule on even the tightest offside decisions more quickly than under the previous system, and a 3D animated rendering of the incident will be broadcast for fans in the stadium and on TV.
“(It) gives us the possibility to be faster and more accurate in terms of decisions about offside,” Collina told reporters in a briefing ahead of the tournament.
“Just to be clear, being faster does not mean we will have instantaneous assessments of offside. It will be less than now, certainly, but we cannot have an answer one-second, or basically live. One thing I want to underline is the final decision always belongs to the match official – on the VAR, the video assistant referee, on the field of play, to the referee.”
Twelve cameras in each stadium will track 29 points on the body of each player, and a sensor inside the match ball will send data to the VAR operations’ room 500 times a second to allow a highly accurate assessment of when the pass was played.
The new technology has already been tried out at two FIFA tournaments and in test matches at
all the stadiums hosting matches at the World Cup.
“We analysed the data, and
the outcome was very positive,” said Johannes Holzmueller, FIFA’s director of technology and innovation. “It’s the most accurate supporting offside tool at the moment.”
Holzmueller said the previous offside technology would be available in Qatar, but only as a back-up.
Collina said his team had briefed all 32 team coaches at two workshops, and visited each of the team camps to reinforce their message to players. Referees had been instructed to sanction anything that would endanger the health of another player with red cards, including elbows to the face, studs up tackles and dangerously high feet.
Simulation, although less popular than before the advent of VAR, would continue to be punished, as would dissent, the Italian added.