Is there a future where refereeing is fully automated? How will the fusion of football judgment and technology, which has progressed rapidly since the 2010s, develop in the future and impact football itself? Mr. SUSSU, who is well-versed in the rules of the competition, looks ahead while tracing the changes so far.
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Throughout its long history, football has avoided the intervention of technology in decision-making. Although there are various theories as to why, it cannot be said that the simplicity of the game, which allows anyone to enjoy the same game with just one ball and a large space, is unrelated to the way football has become a world-class sport. However, starting with the 2012 Club World Cup held in Japan, football decision-making and technology have rapidly merged with Goal Line Technology (GLT), Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT). ing. Its role extends beyond supporting referees’ decisions, to allowing them to retroactively correct their decisions if they have clearly misjudged the facts. This trend, which has continued for more than 10 years since the 2010s, can be said to be extremely unique in the history of football.
The 2012 Club World Cup was the first to use goal line technology.The photo shows referee Carlos Vela refereeing the quarterfinal match between Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Al Ahly.
What kind of impact will technology, which is still advancing rapidly, have on football judgment and the game itself? In this article, I would like to look back at the history of the relationship between football and technology, mainly from the perspective of competition rules, and try to predict the future.
VAR has changed the nature of the game of football
Looking back over the long history, football competition management and technology have never been unrelated. Starting with clocks to accurately measure match times, signal beeps and voice communication devices that allow referees to communicate with each other have all been integrated into football without even being noticed. However, these devices did not affect the judgment itself, and the competition rules only permitted referees to keep and use them, and did not change the nature of the competition.
Eventually, as football spread internationally and took on the character of a professional entertainment, it became impossible to ignore the influence and reaction that referees’ decisions had on the results of games and tournaments. There are many instances of misjudgment in football, but a major impetus for accelerating the integration of technology was Frank Lampard’s “phantom goal” in the first round of the 2010 World Cup finals, between England and Germany. Dew. This scene was a symbolic event in that it showed the limits to which the competition rules and operations at the time could guarantee the accuracy of decisions.Since then, changes in FIFA’s organizational structure have also coincided, and technology has rapidly intervened in football. become.
South Africa World Cup round of 16, the scene that led to the questionable no-goal decision between England and Germany
The first system introduced was GLT, which instantly determines whether a ball in play has physically crossed the goal line directly below the crossbar. Multiple high-performance cameras accurately capture the position of the ball and notify the referee the moment it crosses the line. What makes this technology unique is its ability to support accurate decisions without disrupting the flow of the football game. It was unacceptable at the time to take 10 seconds to determine whether a ball had crossed the line, and the technology was designed to maintain the speed of football.
The next step was the introduction of VAR. This system, which uses video recorded according to a certain protocol to review decisions at important moments, uses the universal technology of video, but it does not allow for retroactive corrections in the world of football. It was an extremely innovative solution. Another unique point was that the rules of the game were applied differently in matches where VAR was applied and those where it was not, as exemplified by offside delays. Rather than being a technology itself, VAR is unique in that it has changed the nature of the game of football.
The spread of VAR-applied matches can be said to have expanded the scope for technology to intervene in football. As shown in the GLT requirements, a prerequisite for the introduction of technology was to not interfere with the movement of referees who run around the field and make decisions without interrupting the flow of the game. By allowing access to information, it has become possible for a variety of technologies to enter the market. One of these is the offside line technology used to determine offsides, and the evolved system is SAOT, which was a hot topic at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Advances in technology have finally reached a level where the positions of the players and the ball can be accurately captured moment by moment, and visually reproduced judgment images can achieve both accurate judgments and convincing explanations. became.
A future where competition rules and technology are further integrated
What kind of influence will competition rules and technology have on each other in the future world of football? ……
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SUSSU
Born in 1988. Born in Yokohama. While working as an ICT consultant, he also engages in activities related to sports, mainly soccer (staff and coach of amateur teams, instructor of classes on the theme of technology utilization in sports, etc.). Currently, he also serves as an auditor for an educational general incorporated association. He holds a JFA soccer referee qualification (3rd grade).