FIFA Club World Cup: Footage of 'Robot VAR' in action is a glimpse in football's future

The FIFA Club World Cup isn’t necessarily the most adored of tournaments.

With the Champions League winners having lifted the trophy at every single edition since 2012, FIFA’s showpiece can often feel like something of a victory lap for clubs such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

However, if we put some of the cynicism to the side for a second, it is admittedly important to remember that FIFA often turn to the Club World Cup when it comes to trialling advances in the sport.

Technological developments such as goal-line technology and VAR that have since become part and parcel of the beautiful game took some of their first steps at the oft-maligned competition.

And the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup is absolutely no different with football fans having the unique opportunity to take a glimpse into the future by seeing the latest advances in VAR technology taking its bow.

Yes, that’s right, the so-called ‘Robot VAR’ offside decisions that you may have heard about across social media and news sites have taken some of their first brave steps at the tournament in Abu Dhabi.

So, what exactly is this new progression in VAR? Well, it centres around limb-tracking technology which is designed to quicken the time taken to make offside decisions and provide clear graphics for supporters.

The idea is that new graphics provided by the semi-automated system will eliminate misunderstandings around offside calls by presenting it in a similar manner to Hawk-eye’s goal-line technology system.

According to ESPN, dedicated cameras and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will do the heavy lifting instead of the VAR manually placing lines on the broadcaster’s images.

Twelves cameras are installed under the stadium roof to keep tabs on the players