One of the biggest novelties of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and which almost immediately became the focus of controversy, is the new ultra-sensitive system to detect misplaced plays. This tool was applied two minutes into the first half of the opening match to annul a goal by Ecuador against the local team.
Fifa announced it months ago: artificial intelligence will collaborate in the detection of offsides (plays out of place), with a semi-automatic and ultra-sensitive technology Which will allow “make faster, more accurate and more reliable decisions” during the World Cup, as stated by the governing body of this sport.
(You can read: Lionel Messi: unexpected reaction to a Saudi player who celebrated a goal in his face).
The system uses the images taken by 12 cameras “installed under the stadium roof, which capture the movements of the ball and up to 29 data points of each player, 50 times per second”. Thus, the position of each footballer on the pitch can be accurately determined, including the limbs and body parts that matter when signaling offside.
In this way, it was established that the Ecuadorian Michael Estrada had half a leg out of place when he jumped to head a cross that later led to the assist of striker Enner Valencia to score the goal. The Ecuadorians celebrated for more than two minutes, until referee Daniele Orsato received the VAR notice that he had to cancel it.
(You may be interested: On video: Lautaro Martínez and the sadness of Argentina’s defeat with Arabia).
Argentina’s disallowed goals
In the unexpected 2-1 defeat in their debut against Saudi Arabia, the Albiceleste team had both tastes. That of the benefit, when the VAR noticed a tiny grab on Leandro Paredes in the area and a penalty was sanctioned, and that of the damage, when a goal from Lionel Messi and another two from Lautaro Martínez were annulled because a shoulder from the ‘Flea’ and another from the Inter striker were out of place.
Barely seven minutes of the game had been played when the VAR, in charge of the Dutchman Paulus Van Boekel and the German Bastian Dankert, called the Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic. Nobody had noticed and no Argentine had claimed in the previous play. But there was a video signal and the play was reviewed at the foot of the field. Saud Abdulhamid was seen blocking the way for Leandro Paredes as the ball fell into the Saudi box. It was a grab like so many and a penalty like few: it served to open the account on the scoreboard, in a World Cup debut.
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A few minutes later, Messi himself made it 2-0 after classily defining a one-on-one with the Arab goalkeeper. But Vincic’s assistant raised the flag and marked an offside that the VAR confirmed. The repetition on TV showed the millimeter of the annulled action.
The VAR drowned out the Argentine celebration in two shots from Lautaro Martínez. The first had defined it with a soft touch over the goalkeeper and it was his shoulder that crossed the line. The second was after 35 minutes, when the player pounced into the void, faked the goalkeeper with enormous lucidity and pushed the ball into the empty goal.
How does this controversial technology work?
The official tournament ball, dubbed Al-Rihla, is central to the new technology, as it contains an “inertial measurement unit” (IMU) inside. It is a chip with a sensor that will send data with a frequency of 500 times per second to the video room from where the VAR is used: the images allow to determine the precise moment in which a player kicks a ball in a play where there is a potential for offsideaccording to Fifa.
Thus, the combination of the images of the soccer players and the moment in which the ball is kicked allows, through artificial intelligence, “the new technology provides a warning to the video room every time an attacker receives the ball in an illegal position”, promises Fifa.
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In any case, there is a human check: once it receives the notice from the computers, the VAR referees “manually check the exact moment in which the ball is kicked, as well as the offside line that has been automatically created based on the extremities of the soccer player. As it only takes a few seconds, the process allows faster and more accurate decisions to be made”, says the entity chaired by Gianni Infantino and which is based in Zürich (Switzerland).
The referees and assistant referees remain responsible for the decisions they make
The procedure does not end there: after the VAR assistants inform the main referee and he confirms the advanced position, the position data of the ball and the players involved in the play “generate a three-dimensional animation that perfectly details the position of the player’s body parts at the moment of contact with the ball”, explains Fifa. The animation produced is then broadcast on the giant screens of each stadium and distributed to the owners of the World Cup TV rights.”to inform all viewers as clearly and transparently as possible”, they add from Switzerland.
(You can also read: Drama of a player who bursts into tears upon debuting and learning that his grandfather died).
Former Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, current president of the Fifa referees commission, also referred to technological innovation for offside detection: “We hope that semi-automated technology for offside detection will help us to continue improving. We are aware that sometimes it takes too long to verify a possible non-regulatory position, especially when it is doubtful. This is where the technology in question is a great help, as it helps to make decisions faster and more accurately”.
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*With information from La Nación (Argentina) / GDA
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