Semi-automatic Offside Technology Used In Qatar 2022 World Cup, FIFA Referee Calls Profitable For Officials And Supporters

JAKARTA - There will be further innovations at the Qatar World Cup in terms of technology. VAR (Video Assistant Referee) was used for the first time at the World Cup in Russia in 2018. Four years later and countless headlines later, it is clear that VAR will still be around. And a fix is on the way.

A team of 24 video match officials (VMO) will operate in Qatar to assist and assist officials on the pitch with incidents that occur during matches.

Match Official videos are also more representative as they will come from Asia, Africa, Central and North America after coming almost exclusively from Europe and South America in 2018.

The semi-automatic offside technology will also be used at the World Cup meaning that strict offside call will no longer be a split-second call from the Assistant Referee.

As Jennifer Aniston once said, here's a bit of science: This new technology uses 12 special tracking cameras mounted under the roof of the stadium to track the ball.

It also uses up to 29 data points from each individual player, 50 times per second, to calculate their exact position on the field. A sensor will also be inside the sphere that transmits data to the video operating room at a rate of 500 times per second.

Keith Hackett is a FIFA referee with more than two decades in the profession and he strongly believes that increased use of technology will benefit both officials and supporters.

“I welcome every step and introduction of any technology to improve decision-making accuracy. I think it's true that it's called semi-auto because of course it's mainly dealing with the offside law and subjectivity which really says, look, we have to have a semi-automatic system," he told Football Now.

"What will happen at the World Cup is they will come together. They will be trained very, very accurately on their use and interpretation. And as a consequence, I think we will see him at his best."