#offside-technology

#offside-technology

Every player at this summer's World Cup will have their own physically accurate AI avatar that will be used in taking VAR decisions. The innovation, which will involve every player being digitally scanned and leaves the possibility of size mattering in future offside calls, was part of a package of technological measures announced by Fifa's president, Gianni Infantino, as he made a keynote appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas.

Referees could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) one day, reckons Livingston manager David Martindale. Semi-automated offside technology has been around since the 2022 World Cup and Martindale is predicting further advances to reduce human error. The Scottish Premiership is nearing three years of video assistant referees (VAR) but does not yet have goal-line or offside technology, with the cost proving prohibitive.