One of Bahrain’s leading referees believes Fifa’s latest match day technological innovations will have a positive impact on the sport when it comes into play at the World Cup Finals in November.
The semi-automated system, which uses AI powered cameras which track players’ bodies to make offside calls, will be used alongside the controversial Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
Fifa, football’s governing body, believes it will allow for faster and more accurate offside decisions and become a vital support tool for the on-field match officials, as well as the qualified referee who watches the match via a number of screens and can view slow-motion replays, enabling them to advise the on-field referee.
“For me, the new system will be positive, especially for the referees in the VAR room,” said Ammar Mahfoodh, 35, who refereed in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the AFC Champions League, the King Cup Final 2017, as well as matches across major Asian leagues.
“It will reduce the time needed by VAR to check offside as it will be ready within seconds, and then they can make a decision and communicate their findings to the referee on the pitch.”
If the technology proves successful it will help counter some of the criticism facing the professional game since VAR was introduced suggesting it causes time wastage, has a lack of transparency much to the annoyance of players, coaches and fans, and it can still get decisions wrong.
Mahfoodh, also a Bahraini PE teacher, believes the technological advances are a tool and not an attempt to override a referee’s position.
“Football must keep pace with these developments,” he added. “It is here to help referees, not to replace them.”
The new system involves 12 tracking cameras mounted on the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each player.
The artificial intelligence (AI) inside the camera will track players at a rate of 50 times per second, calculating their exact position and data points which include all limbs and extremities that are relevant to offside calls.
The ball will contain a motion sensor in its centre which will send the ball position to the video operation room 500 times per second.
Data and the AI will combine providing an automated alert sent to the video officials if a player received the ball in an offside position when passed to by a team-mate.
Not all players and football fans are as confident over its introduction though. Journalist Kristian Harrison, a goalkeeper for the Janabiyah Juggernauts who won the 2022 Bahrain Amateur Football League and Cup, believes the Fifa World Cup Finals are ‘too big of an occasion’ to trial the system.
The 30-year-old British expatriate added: “I’m not a fan of turning football into an exact science. Making everything millimetre-perfect ruins the game in my opinion.”
Communication will finally be the key to its success, officials hope as 3D animations, using the same data points shown and used by the referees to make the decision, will be shown to the spectators on giant screens in stadiums.
The animation will also be shared with Fifa’s broadcasting partners to inform TV viewers of the situation.
Fifa has said more tests by the companies who created the system will be conducted to ‘fine tune’ it before the start of the tournament in Qatar.
The data collected during online and offline tests has been analysed and validated by the MIT Sports Lab, with TRACK at Victoria University scientifically validating the limb-tracking technology, Fifa stated on its website. Further insights into the technological capabilities of such multi-camera tracking systems are being provided by a research team at ETH Zurich.