Chelsea will experience the latest trial of “robot referees” at next week’s Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, with the new technology making automatic offside decisions within half a second.
The limb-tracking system, which relies on special cameras attached to the roofs of stadiums and creates an animated skeleton of players through 29 data points, will speed up decision-making around marginal offside calls.
Video assistant referees will receive a near-instant alert to whether the technology determines a player is onside or not and that will then be immediately relayed to the referee.
FIFA says it has the “potential to provide new insights for coaches, medical staff, and fans” and the technology would enable backroom staff to “analyse the action from the point of view of a specific player on the pitch, scrutinise a match changing moment from the perfect angle or get a bird’s-eye view of the pitch.”
The governing body hopes to implement it fully in time for November’s World Cup and after a successful trial in the recent Arab Cup, which was held in Qatar, the Blues will become the first Premier League side to be involved in its latest trial next week.
Thomas Tuchel’s team will play one of Al Hilal, Al Jazira or Pirae in a semi-final on February 9, with a final or third place play-off to follow three days later.
“We strongly believe that access to this new data source can positively impact the game by optimising decision-making processes and increasing objectivity,” Johannes Holzmüller, FIFA’s Director of Football Technology & Innovation, said.
“However, we are only at the beginning of this development journey and possible use cases need to be tested thoroughly to assess the capabilities with a view to eventual implementation.”
