Soccer World Cup 2022: The referees will be disempowered

FIFA no longer wants to leave anything to chance at the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. Away should be recognized automatically. The position of the ball is checked 500 times a second – and the human referees are disempowered.

FIFA World Cup: Software handles offside decisions

Whether or not a player is offside in football is a popular and often discussed issue for fans. The assistant referees are to be provided with a new system for the first time at the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, so that wrong decisions are finally a thing of the past. FIFA relies on a semi-automatic system that checks the exact position of the ball 500 times per second.

In addition to the ball itself, which at the World Cup in Qatar over a special sensor for inertial measurement data (IMU) available, the position of the players must also be kept in view at all times. Twelve special cameras are therefore installed in the World Cup stadiums, which can record 29 points on all players on the field at any time. The data points include all body parts relevant to an offside decision, ie not hands or arms.

This is how the “robot offside” at the World Cup works:

The data collected will evaluated by software in three to four seconds. In the event of a possible wrong decision by the assistant referees, people in the VAR control room will receive a warning about it. After human confirmation of the wrong decision, the referees on the field receive binding instructions.

The technology will tested in the junior division since 2021 and was also used before the World Cup at the Arab Cup in Qatar in November 2021 (source: FIFA).

FIFA: Fans watch 3D animation on TV

So that not only the VAR controllers and referees stay up to date, fans see a 3D animation in the stadium and on TV. According to FIFA, this should lead to more transparency in offside decisions. The 3D animation shows the crucial moment when the ball is released from several perspectives.