July 1, (THEWILL) – FIFA’s head of refereeing Pierluigi Collina, has confirmed that the world football governing body will employ semi-automated video assistant referee (VAR) offside technology for the Qatar 2022 World Cup later this year.
Over the past few months, efforts have been made to significantly improve the VAR system in time for this year’s championship game. The new procedures, which potentially reduce VAR decision-making from 70 seconds to 25 seconds, will be put into use in the Gulf State in November following trials at the Arab Cup and Club World Cup.
Collina, a former World Cup final referee who oversaw Brazil’s victory over Germany in Korea/Japan 2002, noted that the time has come for this change as the semi-automated technology will improve decision-making even more. He said: “We are very positive. It is ready. I read about robot referees. I understand this is very good for headlines, but it is not the case. The match officials are still involved in the decision-making process.
“The semi-automated technology only gives an answer when a player is in an offside position when they play the ball. The assessment of interfering with an opponent and seeing if a handball or foul was committed remains at the discretion of the referee. Our goal is to get referees taking decisions correctly on the field. If something wrong should happen, the referee may take advantage of the technology to get a better vision of what happened – but there will still be room for discussion.”
In-ball sensors, specialised multi-tracking camera rigs, and 29 fast data points on players will all be used by the semi-automated technologies to determine precise locations. Before the hosts take on Ecuador in the tournament’s official opener, Senegal and England face off against the Netherlands and Iran, respectively, on November 21.
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