FIFA World Cup 2022 will feature a brand-new technology
Are you a die-hard football fan? Well then, you must be eagerly waiting for the FIFA World Cup 2022 that is scheduled to start from 21st November at Qatar. But to get you more excited about this global championship, which occurs once in four, we have got an interesting piece of news for you. The FIFA committee has announced that a semi-automated offside technology, (SAOT), will be used in the upcoming tournament.
SAOT: What will it do?
For starters, this semi-automated offside technology will act as a support tool for all match officials, such as the on-field referees as well as the off-field video match authorities. As you may have guessed already, SAOT will allow them to make better, quicker and more accurate decisions with respect to offsides. Interestingly, without prior public knowledge, FIFA had already used this technology in its earlier tournaments (such as FIFA Arab Cup 2021 and FIFA Club World Cup 2021) and is now ready to launch it in the biggest stage of all.
How will SAOT work?
The semi-automated offside technology is the most innovative feature that FIFA has introduced in the World Cups so far. It employs 12 cameras dedicated for the sole purpose of tracking the ball that will be installed underneath the roof of the stadium. In addition, the cameras will also track individual players from 29 data points (including all limbs and extremities relevant for offside decisions), around 50 times per second. This will enable determining the exact position of the players on field.
To make things more interesting, Adidas’ official match ball for the World Cup 2022 named Al Rihla will have an in-built sensor called Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor. This will prove to be equally important while making offside calls. Sources say that this sensor will be placed right at the centre of the ball, sending ball data to the video operator at a rate of 500 times per second. Okay, so how will this help? It will detect the exact kick point.
Once the ball tracking data is combined with the data derived from players and artificial intelligence is applied to it, a semi-automated offside alert for the match officials can be created. In fact, as soon as an attacker receives the ball in an offside position, an instant video confirmation is sent across the video operation room. Here, the experts will manually check the offside alert by analysing the automatically selected kick point alongside the automatically created offside line based on the available data and then inform the on-field referee about the decision to be made. Now, even though the process appears to be tedious, in reality it only takes a few seconds, saving precious time and avoiding any offside related errors.
But wait, that’s not all. After a decision has been made, the exact data is then used in the form of 3D animation, showing the player’s position when the ball was kicked. This will, in turn, be broadcast on the television as well the in-stadium giant screens. This will further the communication and viewing experience for all live spectators.
It also turns out that this brand-new technology has been analysed and approved by MIT Sports Lab, in association with TRACK, the Sports Research Facility at Victoria University, US. In fact, they have successfully validated the limb-tracking as well as the ball-tracking technologies after several rounds of experiments. Moreover, a research team at ETH Zurich is also fine-tuning the multi-camera tracking system ahead of the grand tournament. As per several media reports, FIFA has also confirmed that in the remaining months, more research will be conducted to upgrade this system and get it ready for the Qatar World Cup. Teams that have qualified for the World Cup 2022 will be updated on the technology at a Team Workshop soon.