Illustration of a soccer ball. - Odd ANDERSEN / AFP

Video assistance to football referees (VAR) could soon take a new step with the arrival of artificial intelligence in the device. The system has already been tested unofficially during the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar in December. Separated from the system used by official match officials, an algorithm has been tested to try to improve VAR's ability to spot offside, reports Forbes .

How #FIFA is testing new technology to improve #VAR offside calls: https://t.co/Fj3OsctGSK

- Steve Price (@kleaguefootball) February 12, 2020

In its current configuration, video arbitration requires the intervention of the arbitrators in order to choose the image that will be used to make the final decision. It is also a human who positions the line which helps to determine if an offside has been committed. The process can be quite long and the game interruptions generated by the analyzes have attracted much criticism.

Several body parts analyzed

The use of artificial intelligence would streamline this process. Instead of using a single point to determine the position of a player on the video representation of a situation, the algorithm is based on 15 to 20 different parts of the body of a footballer. The system therefore knows at any time which part of the body of each athlete is closest to the goal, and automatically draws a much more precise offside line.

The tests in Qatar were described as "very promising" by Johannes Holzmüller, director of innovation and technology at FIFA. The association has indicated that it now wants to carry out other tests and simulations in order to feed the algorithm. "As in the rest of our lives, it is obvious that artificial intelligence is one of the technologies that will have the greatest impact on football in the years to come," said the official.

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  • Video
  • High-Tech
  • Qatar
  • Arbitrator
  • Soccer
  • Artificial intelligence