Explained | How FIFA is using SAOT for offside decisions

Source: The post is based on the article “Explained | How FIFA is using SAOT for offside decisions” published in The Hindu on 1st December 2022.

What is the News?

Federation Internationale de Football Association(FIFA) is using Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) for offside decisions in the ongoing football world cup.

What is Semi-Automated Offside Technology(SAOT)?

Semi-automated offside technology(SOAT) is a support tool for video match officials and on-field officials to help them make faster, more reproducible and more accurate offside decisions.

How do the SOAT works?

There are two parts to the technology — a sensor inside the match ball that is held using suspension technology, and existing tracking tools that are part of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.

Every time the ball is hit, data is sent in real-time (at a whopping 500 frames per second) to a network of antennae installed around the playing field.

Additionally, there are 12 Hawk-Eye cameras set up around the turf that shadow both the ball and the players, with as many as 29 separate points in the human body tracked.

The coming together of the ball sensor and the Hawk-Eye cameras is in effect SAOT.

These two data sets are run through artificial intelligence software which generates automated alerts about offsides to the match officials. This replaces the manual effort taken in poring over replays for minutes on end.