Chelsea FC will be the first Premier League side to experience the latest trial of “robot referees” at next week’s Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, with the new technology making automatic offside decisions in the second half.
The footie-loving robot has a limb-tracking system that relies on special cameras attached to the roofs of stadiums. It creates an animated skeleton of players through 29 data points and should be able to speed up decision-making around marginal offside calls.
Video assistant referees will receive a near-instant alert on whether the technology determines a player to be onside or not, for it then to be immediately relayed to the referee. FIFA says that the new system has the “potential to provide new insights for coaches, medical staff and fans”.
The technology will also enable backroom staff to “analyse the action from the point of view of a specific player on the pitch, scrutinise a match-changing moment from the perfect angle or get a bird’s-eye view of the pitch.”
The governing body hopes that the new technology will be fully available in time for November’s World Cup after a successful trial in the recent Arab Cup held in Qatar.
