An important test for the improvement of technology in arbitration is being carried out by FIFA now, during the Arab Nations Cup.
Held in Qatar, this tournament also serves as a test event for the 2022 World Cup, which will host the Middle East country.
The entity that controls football in the world decided to take advantage of the competition to try to give more reliability to one of the moments that most raise doubts when the VAR (assistant video referee) intervenes: the offside.
Currently, when a move is in doubt, the computerized system is able to draw lines on the pitch that allow the VAR to identify whether the player receiving the ball is or is not early at the time the teammate makes the pass or toss.
The problem is the following: the moment when the TV image is frozen for this check to be carried out.
If the video operator is not 100% accurate when pausing –and it won’t be able to be always, since he is human–, the decision could be incorrect.
Sometimes, when watching an offside play that passes the VAR’s assessment, I say to myself, “It’s wrong. This is not the timing of the pass. The screen freeze was inaccurate.”
FIFA has noticed this too, and is using new technology to back up existing technology.
The objective is to automate the process, taking the responsibility of accurately pressing the button from the back of the employee who operates the video.
“We will have a camera setup installed under the roof of each stadium. The tracking data will be sent to the operating room [do VAR], and the calculated offside line and the start point [do lance] will be offered to the replay operator in near real-time,” said Johannes Holzmüller, FIFA director for Technology and Innovation.
The Arab Nations Cup, which has existed since 1963, is held in six sumptuous stadiums in four cities (Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Khore and Al Wakrah).
Sixteen teams participate in this year’s edition, the tenth of the story, which will end on the 18th.
The most recent was held in 2012, in Saudi Arabia, and the champion was Morocco. Iraq, with four titles, is the greatest champion.
Since VAR is a one-way street, FIFA tests are welcome.
Everything that is used to make arbitration decisions more precise and objective must be praised and put into practice.
There is, however, a catch: once approved, this automation of decisions related to the impediment will be for few, due to a structural, architectural issue.
In the words of Holzmüller (“camera installed under the roof of each stadium”), to have this new technology, whose cost has not been revealed, the stadium needs a specific configuration so that it can be installed.
The arena must have a roof. I understand that this ceiling is the coverage. And only the most modern and/or the most recent have this item.
Thus, unless the league that wants to implement it enables all stadiums in this sense, in order for the technology to work in all of them, there will be inequality.
And, in football as in life, inequalities are not desirable, as they make matches, and human beings, “better” or “worse” than others
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