The history of the football world would surely change if referee errors on the field could be reduced. Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal, David Beckham’s red card and South Korea’s against Italy are just a small part of the controversial decision that is still being discussed to this day. Therefore, the use of technology is expected to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
At the Qatar World Cup later this year, FIFA confirmed it will use Semi -Automatic Offside Technology (SAOT) aided by artificial intelligence that detects offside. The system detects the position of the Adidas Al Rihla ball on the field 500 times per second using a built -in sensor.
Twelve cameras in the stadium track the position of players 50 times per second. With the help of all the sensors and data collected, SAOT can help the referee make the right decision whether the player is offside or not.
With SAOT, FIFA hopes the offside decision can be decided in 25 seconds instead of 75 seconds as is the case when using the existing VAR system. The decision is still in the hands of human referees with SAOT just helping. This is different from the original announcement in December last year by FIFA to use the offside system without human intervention.
