2022 World Cup: Upgraded semi-automated offside VAR on course to be used in Qatar

Published on: 15 June 2022

Artificial intelligence-driven semi-automated VAR offside technology is still on track to be used at the World Cup in Qatar.

That is the message from The International Football Association Board (The IFAB), the organisation that determines football laws.

Offside decisions using VAR have taken up to four minutes, with the technology aiming to reduce the decision time to three or four seconds by providing faster information.

The IFAB is still in talks with FIFA about implementing the upgraded VAR system, with the goal of using offside technology at the upcoming World Cup in November.

“It looks very good and very promising,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino told a news conference on Monday.

“Our experts are looking into [the trials] before we take a decision on whether it will be used for the World Cup or not.”

FIFA’s head of refereeing, Pierluigi Collina, added: “My personal opinion is that I’m very confident we can go ahead with this.

“We want to achieve accuracy, quicker decisions, also more accepted decisions.

“We have seen in matches where the semi-automated offside was implemented (and) these objectives were achieved.

“It uses the same process as goal-line technology, and we have seen (that) that is very well accepted by the football community. Nobody comments on this.

“We are confident that the same reaction, in terms of acceptance, can be given to the semi-automated offside.”

Trials are also underway to give attacking players an advantage in offside situations, with Collina revealing that the rules are being considered.

“We are considering that a very marginal offside is not that relevant to be punished in modern football,” Collina added.

“So, we are running this experiment. Unfortunately, the competitions where these trials were allowed were suspended or abandoned for almost two years due to the pandemic.

“So, now we have tests going on in [youth football] in the Netherlands, in Italy, and in Sweden and certainly we will come to conclusions once we have evidence and figures from these trials.”

The IFAB also confirmed it was investigating how to reduce time-wasting, with the ball usually in action for just 54 minutes of a 90-minute match.

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