This month’s Abu Dhabi World Club Cup will deploy high-tech AI and robo-refs to ensure proper offside rulings are made. With 29 data points, a camera system mounted on the stadium’s roof will follow the ball and every player. The AI technology will then produce a 3D model that may be revised 50 times per second to assist authorities in making sound judgments.
FIFA have announced that new offside technologies will be used for the first time in the Club World Cup:
→ Robot referee
→ Limb-tracking
→ When the player is offside, the signal will be received by a satellite and will send a decision to the VAR operator within half a second. pic.twitter.com/5wxr23SwDY— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) February 2, 2022
The referees will get a verdict within half a second indicating whether or not a player is offside. If the experiment goes well, FIFA plans to employ the technology for the World Cup in Qatar. “We strongly believe that access to this new data source can positively impact the game by optimising decision-making processes and increasing objectivity,” said Johannes Holzmueller, Fifa’s director of football technology and innovation.
According to FIFA, the new technology has the ‘potential to provide new insights for coaches, medical staff, and fans’, and will enable backroom staff to ‘analyse the action from the point of view of a specific player on the pitch, scrutinise a match-changing moment from the perfect angle or get a bird’s-eye view of the pitch.’
