Imagine the ball pinging a questionable offside decision to VAR officials, cutting all the drama to a half-a-second? The same way the goal-line system beeps the referee’s watch when the ball crosses the goal line in entirety? Well we might see such a scenario next year.Allegedly, the Hawk-Eye system will automatically detect whether a player is offside – at the moment the final pass is made, cameras should track the movement of both the ball and the players to determine whether a player is onside or not.It is a two-step-project. Initially, it will work as a semi-automated system which sends a message to the VAR room where it is then decided whether the offside player was interfering with the play. The second part and the ultimate plan is for the technology to see officials on the pitch notified instantly as to whether a player is offside.What if VAR was one of us?According to The Times, FIFA received information that the technology is ‘ready to go’ with just over a year left until the World Cup in Qatar. This season already, the Hawk-Eye have been staging non-live tests of their technology at the stadiums of the Premier League’s four Champions League representatives – Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.FIFA Club World Cup, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates in February next year, could also feature the automated offside technology. FIFA must approve the utilization of the system for the tournament in which Chelsea participate alongside with champions of other continent’s elite club competitions.If the system gets perfected, it would replace the annoying VAR ‘lines’ system and notify the referee on the pitch and two linesman of the decision straight away.Award-winning Kenyan match official picked for CAF Champions League assignmentIt imposes the question – are the linesman even necessary in such a scenario? We will just have to wait and see.The system relies on the ‘skeletal player-tracking system’ – there are 12 cameras positioned around the pitch which monitor 29 points on each player’s body together with the ball movement. The computers will then process all the gathered information within 0.5 seconds of real time and determine if the player in question is offside. ‘Automated means it goes directly from the signal to the linesman and the linesman has on his watch a red light that tells him offside or not offside.’ said Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development.Less Premier League stress – new VAR rules presented to the clubs’At the moment, we have situation where the players are on lines to see if they are offside or not. On average, the time we have to wait is around 70 seconds, sometimes one minute 20 seconds, sometimes a little bit longer when the situation is very difficult to appreciate.’It is so important because we see many celebrations are cancelled after that for marginal situations and that’s why I believe it is a very important step.’, said the Frenchman as he openly supports the automated offside technology.VAR either needs improving or it needs to go, as far as Premier League fans are concerned’In 2022 at the World Cup, we’ll be much better able to make very quick offside decisions. And it will stop the game less because that is what the VAR can be faulted with.’, Wenger added on the subject two weeks ago.
