IFAB to Evaluate "Semi-Automated" Technology for Offside Detection

The International Football Association Board (IFAB), which is responsible for enacting the laws of the game, will hold a meeting in Doha on Monday 12 June to assess the effectiveness of a "semi-automated" technology for offside detection.

The International Football Association Board, at the 136th annual meeting of its General Assembly, is required to confirm the law of the five substitutions in each match and to consider again the question of handball inside the penalty area.

FIFA is still aiming to implement the semi-automated offside detection that was tested at the Club World Cup in February, but its use has not yet been confirmed.

This technology aims to increase reliability and speed up the detection of offside, it’s called “semi-automatic” because the final decision in calculating offside or not remains in the end with the authority of the video assistant referee “VAR”, unlike goal-line technology that determines decisively that the ball is passing the line or not

The new technology relies on cameras on the roof of the stadium to follow the players and help the referees estimate two crucial points: the moment the ball is passed or touched, and the position of each part of the players' bodies involved based on the imaginary offside line.

This data will be transmitted directly to the video assistant referee room, and the final decision is always with the VAR referee, according to what the International Federation of the game stressed. The visual tracking system was tested for the first time in the Arab Cup last year in Qatar, and then in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.

To provide advanced accuracy, the system currently generates 18 data points for each player, tracking every part of the player's body to create a 3D skeletal model. However, the main goal is to increase the data to raise the number to 29 points in the World Cup finals in order to provide more accuracy, according to the head of football technology at /FIFA / Sebastian Ranch.

Despite the increasing impact of technology on the world of soccer, FIFA has insisted that match officials’ referees will always make the final decision, with VAR technology responsible for monitoring offside situations and checking cases as they occur rather than waiting for the play to stop.

And the IFAB general assembly can install the five substitutions for players in each match, which is adopted almost everywhere and is widely spread in light of the “Covid-19” pandemic.

In October 2021, the Board regulating the Laws of the Game left each competition the option to adopt the five changes or not.

The amendment was extended to Article No. 3 of the Football Law, which stipulates that the maximum number of substitutions is three, until December 31, 2022, after “a global analysis of the current impact of “Covid-19” on football.” Not all tournaments have approved an increase in The number of substitutions, especially the English Premier League.

it worth noting that FIFA has four votes out of eight in IFAB, while the other four votes belong to the associations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.