One of the greatest referees the game of football witnessed, Pierluigi Collini is currently the Chairman of FIFA’s refereeing committee, and his team has been working relentlessly to integrate technology into the game to ensure it meets the modern standards and makes the life of referees a little less turbulent.
As a part of that endeavour, FIFA will be trying out the semiautomated offside technology in the FIFA Arab Cup that got started on 30th November. It has been hailed as the most important experiment thus far, and it was explained by the legendary referee of the yester generation during FIFA’s Football Living Magazine show.
As a part of this semiautomated offside calling, there will be a camera attached at the roof of each stadium. It will extract data from the video and send it almost immediately to the operations room, where the authorized personnel will be able to see the replays of the incident in real-time.
The replay operator thus has the opportunity to show it immediately to the VAR, and the assistant positioned in the dedicated offside station can validate and confirm the decision. The entire exercise is expected to reduce the time between the incident and a technology-driven decision.
“Technology is very important and useful in both the pre-match preparation and the decision-making process during matches. In an offside incident, the decision is made after having analysed not only the players’ position but also, their involvement in the move.
Technology – today or tomorrow – can draw a line but the assessment of an interference with play or with an opponent remains in the referee’s hands.”
said Collina.
Since the induction of the Video Assistant Referee into the game, although the technology has helped make some very crucial calls across all major competitions, there has been an equal amount of confusion caused. A lot of the managers and players have been unhappy with the interpretation of the VAR laws, and it continues to be a major talking point in the football fraternity.
Qatar, who will be hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, are hosting the 10th edition of the Arab Cup, which is also the first time it will be conducted under FIFA’s jurisdiction.
