European football is facing a historic moment. During Wednesday night’s Supercup between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt, semi-automatic offside technology will be used for the first time. What is that, how does it work and when can we expect it?
Yanko Beeckman
How does the semi-automatic offside technology work?
Crucial in assessing an offside situation is when the pass departs. Therefore, a chip will be placed in the center of the ball that can transmit data 500 times per second. In this way it can be determined in detail at which moment a player’s foot touches the ball. By way of comparison, the moment the pass departs is currently determined based on TV frames – of which there are barely fifty per second.
The second crucial element in the new system will be the twelve additional cameras that will be placed in each stadium and will be used solely for the semi-automatic offside technology. Those cameras can determine a total of 29 points, which are relevant for assessing an offside situation, on each player’s body.
Based on the ball data, the images and artificial intelligence, the system sends a signal to the video ref (VAR) the moment a player receives the ball in an offside situation. The VAR team is then shown the images, which it still has to check on the basis of an automatically proposed offside line. The final decision is communicated with a 3D simulation on a gutter screen in the stadium.
What’s the benefit?
Speed. The average time that VAR needs today to assess an offside situation is about seventy seconds. FIFA, which will also use the system, is committed to making decisions within 25 seconds using the semi-automatic offside technology.
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Are there potential dangers?
Of course. The system only sends a signal to the video ref when a player in an offside position actually receives the ball. But a player can also join the game from offside without touching the ball – think of an attacker blocking the keeper’s view on a shot on goal. For such situations, the referee and VAR will still have to pay attention.
Where will the system be used?
FIFA has already announced that the semi-automatic offside technology will be used at the World Cup in Qatar next winter. UEFA will use the system for the first time during Wednesday evening’s European Super Cup between Real Madrid and Frankfurt, and then also in the Champions League.
Can we also expect semi-automatic offside technology in Jupiler Pro League?
“That is not an issue for us today,” the Professional Referee Department said. “The cameras used at the World Cup for this technology will only be used for the automatic offside line. With us we are talking about a completely different order of budgets and resources.”
