The European Super Cup that will be decided between Real and Eintracht is almost here. UEFA have announced that English referee Michael Oliver will be in charge of the European Super Cup match between them. One of the main features of this match is related to the technology that will help the main referee and his partners with the offside situations. As the technology continues to advance in the world of football, Helsinki will see the debut the semi-automatic offside system.
UEFA also announced that this system for detecting incorrect positioning will be used in the Champions League: "UEFA is proud to announce that Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) will premiere in European club competitions at the UEFA Super Cup. Furthermore, SAOT will also be used as of the group stage in the upcoming UEFA Champions League season", a statement from UEFA read.
UEFA claim that the technology is fully functional after more than two years of testing. In total, 188 tests have been carried out since 2020, including in all Champions League matches last season, the knockout phase of the UEFA Women's Champions League and the entire UEFA Women's European Championship finals, as well as the finals of other club competitions.
"UEFA is constantly looking for new technological solutions to improve the game and support the work of the referees. This innovative system will allow Video Assistant Referee (VAR) teams to determine offside situations quickly and more accurately, enhancing the flow of the game and the consistency of the decisions. The system is ready to be used in official matches and implemented at each Champions League venue", UEFA Chief Refereeing Officer Roberto Rosetti said in a statement.
But how does this technology work?
By working with adidas and various partners, and especially with the Working Group for Innovation Excellence and technology providers, FIFA has spent the last few years further improving the VAR system, including the use of semi-automated offside technology. The new technology uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch. The 29 collected data points include all limbs and extremities that are relevant for making offside calls.
Al Rihla, adidas’ official match ball for Qatar 2022™, will provide a further vital element for the detection of tight offside incidents as an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor will be placed inside the ball. This sensor, positioned in the centre of the ball, sends ball data to the video operation room 500 times per second, allowing a very precise detection of the kick point.
By combining the limb- and ball-tracking data and applying artificial intelligence, the new technology provides an automated offside alert to the video match officials inside the video operation room whenever the ball is received by an attacker who was in an offside position at the moment the ball was played by a team-mate.
Before informing the on-field referee, the video match officials validate the proposed decision by manually checking the automatically selected kick point and the automatically created offside line, which is based on the calculated positions of the players’ limbs. This process happens within a few seconds and means that offside decisions can be made faster and more accurately.
After the decision has been confirmed by the video match officials and the referee on the pitch, the exact same positional data points that were used to make the decision are then generated into a 3D animation that perfectly details the position of the players’ limbs at the moment the ball was played. This 3D animation, which will always show the best possible perspectives for an offside situation, will then be shown on the giant screens in the stadium and will also be made available to FIFA’s broadcast partners to inform all spectators in the clearest possible way.
The workflow of semi-automated offside technology and the connected ball technology have been successfully trialled at numerous test events and live at FIFA tournaments, including the FIFA Arab Cup 2021™ and the FIFA Club World Cup 2021™. During these matches, the new technology was able to support the video match officials by helping them to make more accurate and more reproducible offside decisions in a shorter period of time.
The data collected during online and offline tests has been analysed and validated by the MIT Sports Lab, with TRACK at Victoria University scientifically validating the limb-tracking technology. Further insights into the technological capabilities of such multi-camera tracking systems are being provided by a research team at ETH Zurich. More tests have been and will be conducted in the coming months to fine-tune the system before a global standard is implemented to ensure that the new technology can be used in the world of football in the long term.
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