Semi-automated offside technology: "More accurate, quicker decisions" (P. Collina, FIFA)

"We're continuing a test to try to achieve the objective: to have more accurate decisions and also quicker decisions in offside incidents. Someone called it robot offside; it's not," explained Pierluigi Collina (ITA), chairman of the FIFA referees' committee, on 09/02/2022, about the semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) that the International Federation is testing during the Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates (from 03 to 12/02/2022).

"The SAOT is an extension of the VAR system already employed in 47 countries across the world and in more than 100 competitions including all FIFA competitions," explained the body.

"Ten dedicated cameras, as well as several television broadcast cameras, are set up in the stadium to track 18 data points of each individual player, giving their position on the pitch. The number of data points is expected to increase to 29 points per player by the time of the FIFA World Cup. This data, is then relayed to an AVAR (assistant) specifically dedicated to offside decisions to check and make their recommendation to the VAR and the on-field referee…