Semi-automated offside technology at World Cup: How does it work?

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will use semi-automated offside technology.

FIFA will use the technology in an attempt to improve speed and accuracy for offside decisions.

The technology was successfully trialled at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup and at last year’s FIFA Club World Cup.

“Semi-Automated Offside Technology has been developed to support the video match officials,” explained Johannes Holzmuller, FIFA’s director of football technology and innovation. “So, during the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the video operations room will receive an automated alert in case of an offside situation, as well as automatically selected kick point, and automatically drawn offside line within a few seconds after the incident.

“After that the video match officials have to validate the proposed selected kick point as well as the proposed drawn offside line. The VAR communicates the final decision to the referee on the pitch.”

“In terms of accuracy, it is important because when you are more accurate it’s good,” added Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA referees’ committee. “In terms of time, I think it’s more psychological. We felt something was needed, and that’s why we wanted to offer something giving a quicker answer. We are aware that football is different [from other sports] and making a decision faster was important, and that’s why we worked in this direction.”