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Content Overview: On November 22, in the first match of the World Cup Group C, Saudi Arabia overtook Argentina 2:1. Today we will review the technology and hard work behind Argentina's 4 goals and 1 point.

Keywords: World Cup VAR semi-automatic offside technology

This article was first published on WeChat official account:HyperAI

Saudi Arabia unexpectedly reverses and overtakes Argentina 2:1

The first big upset of the 2022 World Cup has occurred! Saudi Arabia started the game 0:1 behind, but in the second half, they played better and better, scoring two goals in a row.In the end, they surpassed Argentina with a score of 2:1 and became the true "Light of Asian Football"!

In fact, less than 10 minutes into the first half, Argentine star Messi scored a goal from a penalty kick. This dream start immediately ignited the atmosphere of the entire stadium.

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What's interesting is that Messi's penalty was also decided by the referee after checking the VAR.

Argentina then continued to pursue the victory and scored 3 goals in the first half. Unfortunately, after checking the VAR, the referee gave an "offside" decision.In the end, Argentina scored 3 goals but lost 3 points, which was a perfect example of an offside science education film.

So who exactly is the VAR that the referee checked several times and blew off three scores for Argentina on the field?

VAR team: 7 people, 42 cameras

VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee.Its roleyesIn football matches, the referee's decisions are reviewed or reminded again through instant replay and communication systems.

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​In the 27th minute of the game, Argentina's Lautaro Martinez scored a goal

VAR then ruled that his shoulder was in front of the last defender and was offside, so the goal was cancelled.

The VAR team provides decision support and advice to the referee in the following four situations:

• Goal or No Goal
• Penalty kicks and fouls leading to penalty kicks
• Direct red card
• Sending off the wrong player

Throughout the game,The Video Assistant Referee will constantly check for obvious errors related to these four situations. Communication between the VAR team and the on-field referee is limited to obvious errors or serious omissions.

In terms of personnel composition,The VAR team consists of 1 Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and 3 Assistant Video Assistant Referees (AVAR 1-3).All VAR team members are senior FIFA video match officials.

In addition, there are three replay operators who are responsible for selecting and providing the best shooting angles.

VAR team composition diagram. The green clothes are the video assistant referee, and the black clothes are the operators.

The VAR team has access to 42 cameras.Among them, there are 8 super slow motion and 4 ultra slow motion.Slow motion replay is mainly used to determine the facts.Such as determining the point of contact in a physical collision or the location of a foul.Normal speed playback is used for subjective judgment.Such as determining the degree of the foul and whether there was handball.

In addition to the camera,The VAR team also has access to camera feeds used by the semi-automatic offside technique.

VAR Invincible Buf: Semi-automatic offside technology

Semi-automated offside technology is more like a magic blessing of the VAR system.It enables referees and related staff on the field to more accurately and quickly determine whether a player is offside.

The semi-automatic offside technology uses 12 dedicated cameras arranged on the field to track the position of the ball and collects 29 data points on each player at a rate of 50 times per second to calculate the exact position of each player on the field.

29 data points covering all areas relevant to offside decisions

In addition, the Al Rihla, the official match ball of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, also has a lot of tricks and plays an important role in detecting offside fouls.

Al Rihla was designed by Adidas specifically for this World Cup. It has an inertial measurement unit (IMU) built into the center of the sphere.Data is sent to the video surveillance room 500 times per second, which can accurately detect the kick point of the football.

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The high-tech Al Rihla is designed and produced by Adidas and is the official match ball for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

By combining player limb tracking and ball tracking data and applying artificial intelligence technology,Once the ball is received by the attacking team in an offside position, the semi-automatic offside technology will send an automatic offside alarm to the observer in front of the monitor.

The VAR team manually checks the automatically selected kick point and the automatically generated offside line (generated based on the calculated position of the player's torso), verifies the judgment of the semi-automatic offside technology, and decides whether to inform the on-field referee through the headphones.

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The referee checks the basis for the offside decision through the monitor on the sidelines

After the VAR on the monitoring screen and the referee on the field confirmed that the player was offside,These identical position data points are then used to generate a 3D animation.Perfectly reproduce the position of the player's torso at the moment of contact with the ball, allowing for quick and accurate visualization of offside situations.

This is the diagram we showed earlier where the Argentine player Lautaro Martinez was judged to be offside after scoring a goal and the score was cancelled.

Fairness regulation or penalty inflation?

The implementation of VAR and semi-automatic offside technology has further narrowed the gap between the strong and the weak in the World Cup.

In the eyes of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, this is an undisputed success. Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, also believes that VAR has led to a significant reduction in the number of critical mistakes on the field of play, with semi-automatic offside technology providing quicker and more accurate decisions.

However, some netizens have a negative attitude towards VAR and semi-automatic offside technology.

They believe that these new technologies have increased the uncertainty of football matches and greatly increased the number of penalties. Take the 2018 World Cup in Russia as an example. Due to the use of VAR, there was "penalty inflation" on the field. Compared with the 13 penalties in the previous World Cup,The 2018 World Cup in Russia set a record of 29 penalties, turning the World Cup into a "penalty cup".

What do you think about this?

Reference Links:

[1] https://www.fifa.com/technical/football-technology/football-technologies-and-innovations-at-the-fifa-world-cup-2022/video-assistant-referee-var

[2] https://www.fifa.com/technical/media-releases/semi-automated-offside-technology-to-be-used-at-fifa-world-cup-2022-tm

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