Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Over 3.5 billion people in the world are soccer fans. Although in North America “Soccer” isn’t that popular, in the rest of the world, soccer is king of the sports industry. Better known as “Football”, it is played everywhere, from Europe to Asia, to South America to Africa, and even the Middle East. One of the most widely regarded tournaments is the World Cup, which is played every 4 years, and is a battle of the countries. The most recent tournament, World Cup 2022 in Qatar, incorporated something new. FIFA’s brand new limb-tracking offside technology.
First of all, let’s talk about what offside really is. Offside is a rule, where there must be at least two defensive players behind an offensive player at all times. Usually, it is one defender and then the goalie.
In the picture shown above, the blue player is offside, because there is only the goalie between him and the net. This rule exists, so that when on offence, you can’t have a player camping in front of the net and scoring easy goals.
In the past, offside decisions have been made by referees themselves. But now, the computer makes a decision, and is shown to the referee. There is a chance for error, so that’s why the final decision still comes down to the referee.
So now, let’s look at the technical aspects behind this new system. The limb tracking technology in VAR 2.0 monitors player body parts and the precise moment a ball is kicked. In order to determine an individual’s precise position on the field, 12 cameras are set up to track up to 29 data points for each player 50 times per second. Thanks to this new system, VAR 2.0 can make decisions much faster than older versions of VAR. Decisions now take around 25 seconds, compared to an average of 70 seconds.
So that’s how AI can help with offside decisions and other refereeing decisions. But how else can AI affect the soccer industry? Well, tune in next time to learn more!