FIFA has recently stated that at the 2022 World Cup, the referees will rely on the support of artificial intelligence to determine offside situations.
According to The Verge, “the semi-automated system consists of a sensor in the ball that relays its position on the field 500 times a second, and 12 tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of stadiums, which use machine learning to track 29 points in players’ bodies.”
The data collected in this way will then be compiled by software, which will generate an alert when a player commits an offside. The alert will reach the control room, where officials will analyze it and then notify the referees on the field of the decision that should be made.
Although it seems to be a lengthy procedure, FIFA assured that it will only last a few seconds and that it will streamline the decision-making process, making it faster and more accurate. FIFA also stated that “the workflow of semi-automated offside technology and the connected ball technology have been successfully trialed at numerous test events and live at FIFA tournaments, including the FIFA Arab Cup 2021™ and the FIFA Club World Cup 2021™.”
Apart from supporting the technical decisions of the matches, the data captured by the cameras and the sensors will also be used for generating 3D animations that will be projected onto the displays of the stadiums and on TV. This is meant to have an informative purpose, by offering full transparency regarding how the data is interpreted.
Between the 4th and 5th of July, the AI technology that will be used during the event will be presented to the qualified teams, in a Team Workshop that will take place in Doha.
This year, the FIFA World Cup will take place between November 21st and December 18th, in Qatar. This is the first time the World Cup will be held in an Arab country.