Italian Championship to adopt semi-automatic offside

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The semi-automatic offside will be introduced from the end of January in Serie A, Italy’s top division, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced on Monday.

After consultations with the Association of Referees (AIA), the decision was taken to resort to this technology, used in the World Cup in Qatar, starting from the 20th round of the Italian Championship, scheduled from 27 to 30 January and which marks the start of the second round of the competition in the 2022-2023 season, explained the FIGC in a statement.

After several trials last year and in February, “semi-automatic offside technology” was introduced by FIFA at this year’s World Cup.

The objective of the tool is to speed up and give greater rigor to refereeing decisions, allowing the position of the players and the ball to be established at any time, without removing the assessment of the referees on the field.

This technology adds to the resource of the video referee (VAR), which in recent years has not been able to put an end to the controversies surrounding referees.

SEE HOW THE SEMI-AUTOMATIC DELIVERY WORKS

  • All balls have a sensor installed in the center of the sphere, which allows checking at what moment there was contact with the player passing the ball;
  • At the stadiums, at least 12 cameras are connected to the system that will track the position of each player on the field, in addition to locating 29 possible points of contact between the body and the ball;
  • If an irregular bid occurs in the match, the VAR (video referee) room will be warned by a light that will turn on in the cabin, and an assistant will be responsible for checking only this type of bid;
  • After the check, the VAR will communicate with the field referee;
  • Instead of the traditional lines drawn on the field, the new technology generates a 3D animation, easier for the referees to interpret;
  • The animation is also displayed in real time on the stadium screens and on TV broadcasts, but it only appears after the interruption of the game;
  • The new technology is only used when the offside player touches the ball. Other bids, such as because of interference in the goalkeeper’s field, for example, will be defined by the referee.

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