Today the 2022/2023 season opens for Spanish teams with the European Super Cup dispute between Real Madrid, champion of the Champions League, and Eintracht Frankfurt, winner of the UEFA Europa League. Beyond this tournament of champions, UEFA will test the so-called semi-automatic offside technology; VAR 2.0 arrives.
Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt meet in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on Wednesday 10 August. In the event of a doubtful goal position, the new Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) will lend a hand to the match officials.
This is how SAOT technology works
“This innovative system will allow VAR teams to determine offside situations quickly and more accurately , improving the fluidity of the game and the consistency of decisions ,” UEFA Chief Referee Roberto Rosetti told reporters. define what is intended with its implementation.
This system is similar to goal line technology, which shows if the ball has completely crossed the goal line and should go to the scoreboard. This technology not only notifies the referee and the VAR components, but also generates 3D animations that will be shown on the video scoreboards in the stadiums so that the public knows first-hand what has happened.
SAOT technology works through 3 main axes:
- Inertial Measurement Unit is a sensor that is placed inside the ball and sends data 500 times per second to the VAR room. In this way, the exact moment in which a player touches the ball is known with much more precision instead of being based on the frames of the video images, limited to 50 frames per second.
- Camera system: 12 tracking cameras under the roof of each stadium that detect 29 specific points of the body that count for offside (with which goals are allowed). This information is sent 50 times per second to calculate the exact positions of the players in the match.
- Artificial Intelligence: the data sent is processed by an AI that sends alerts to the VAR in situations of non-regulatory position.
A test for the World Cup VAR
This technological system that opens today, and will also be tested in the group stage of the Champions League, is mainly focused on the celebration of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which will be played from the month of November.
Pierluigi Collina, FIFA’s director of refereeing, pointed out in February that, since the implementation of VAR, there had been a loss of continuity in the game, and that this new tool would help prevent refereeing decisions from being drawn out.
Before the dispute of the maximum competition at national team level, it will be tried to add more dynamism making these situations in which interpretation of the regulations is not required, but everything depends on measurements, be easier to arbitrate.
