Will one of the oldest football debates be resolved by artificial intelligence?
It is in any case the will of Arsène Wenger.
In remarks transcribed by The Times on Thursday, the director of football development of Fifa announces that Fifa will be ready to use the technology to automate the detection of an offside from 2022, on the occasion of the World Cup organized in Qatar.
"I think the automated offside will be ready for 2022," said the former Arsenal coach.
I really insist that the offside be automated, which means that the signal is sent directly to the linesman.
On average, the time we have to wait is around 70 seconds, sometimes 1 minute and 20 seconds
(Editor's note: when using the Var)
... This is very important because we see that many celebrations are taking place. canceled after that for borderline situations.
"
Possible adaptations of the offside rule
Fifa tested, during the 2019 World Club Cup, a semi-automated technology for the detection of offside situations, which transmits additional information to the referees during the analysis by the Var.
Other demonstrations of the process were carried out in June in front of the working group in charge of the case.
In March, Ifab, the body which determines the laws of the game, indicated that it had received indications from Fifa concerning a possible change in the offside rule.
Arsène Wenger pleads for an attacker to be in a lawful position if a part of his body is on the same line as the second to last opposing defender.
Football's Law 11 currently holds that "is in an offside position if any part of the head, body or feet is closer to the opponent's goal line than the ball and the forward. last opponent ”.