In 2018 for the FIFA World Cup in Russia, VAR was introduced in a bid to use technology to clear up any contentious calls on the field. The implementation was not without its growing pains, but now VAR is commonplace in most top leagues and competitions.

For the 2022 iteration of the World Cup being held in Qatar, FIFA is once again turning to technology, this time to assist with offside calls.

To that end a new semi-automated system will be in place to help video referees in making accurate offside calls.

“By working with adidas and various partners, and especially with the Working Group for Innovation Excellence and technology providers, FIFA has spent the last few years further improving the VAR system, including the use of semi-automated offside technology,” explained the football governing body in a press release sent to Hypertext.

FIFA unpacked the system, with new technology using 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball, as well as up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch.

The 29 collected data points will include all limbs and extremities that are relevant for making offside calls, according to FIFA.

“By combining the limb- and ball-tracking data and applying artificial intelligence, the new technology provides an automated offside alert to the video match officials inside the video operation room whenever the ball is received by an attacker who was in an offside position at the moment the ball was played by a team-mate,” the organisation highlights.

“Before informing the on-field referee, the video match officials validate the proposed decision by manually checking the automatically selected kick point and the automatically created offside line, which is based on the calculated positions of the players’ limbs. This process happens within a few seconds and means that offside decisions can be made faster and more accurately,” it continues.

For those wondering, this year’s World Cup will not be the first time the technology will be tested, with FIFA noting that it has been successfully trialled at numerous test events and live tournaments, including the Arab Cup 2021 and Club World Cup 2021.

“More tests will be conducted in the coming months to fine-tune the system before a global standard is implemented to ensure that the new technology can be used in the world of football,” it concluded.

While some have argued that technology like VAR takes away from some of the excitement of live football, given how much money the sport generates, a lot is at stake financially if a wrong decision is made.

With the Qatar World Cup already proving divisive, you can add this announcement to the mixer.