Champions League. A revolution of the “offside”, “for the great of the sport”.

Fewer interruptions, fewer disputes? By introducing the “semi-automatic offside” from Tuesday within the Champions League, UEFA hopes to make the matches of its queen competitors extra fluid, “for the great of the sport”.

This new instrument, which “labored completely” on August 10 throughout the UEFA Tremendous Cup gained by Actual Madrid towards Eintracht Frankfurt (2-0), goals to “enhance the stream of the match and the consistency of choices “Summarized Friday Roberto Rosetti, patron of referees throughout the European physique.

UEFA locations the identical hopes within the “semi-automated offside know-how” (SAOT) as Fifa, which examined it on the final Arab Cup after which on the Membership World Cup and can use it on the 2022 World Cup. in Qatar (November 20-December 18).

Absolute best know-how

“For the great of the sport and the refereeing, UEFA all the time desires to make use of the very best know-how attainable,” assured Mr Rosetti, though this pattern symbolized by the introduction of video-assisted refereeing ( VAR) – throughout the 2018 World Cup then from February 2019 in C1 – remains to be not unanimous.

The target of the SAOT is to ascertain at any time the place of the gamers and the ball with out the human eye – and its threat of error -, due to cameras positioned underneath the roof of the stadiums and able to to “hint as much as 29 totally different physique factors” per participant.

Positioned within the heart of the ball, a sensor will ship knowledge to the viewing room to find out when it’s performed, with humanly unattainable precision, making it attainable to robotically alert the video referees if the attacker is in an off place. Recreation.

The ultimate determination will nonetheless relaxation with the primary referee, particularly for the reason that very rule of offside prohibits utterly automating its utility.

As soon as the place of the gamers has been taken under consideration, it stays to be assessed whether or not an opponent was capable of deliberately put the ball again into play, as illustrated by Kylian Mbappé’s controversial objective in France’s victory towards France. Spain within the Nations League remaining (2-1) in October 2021.

TTY