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iPhone replaces the VAR system in the Premier League

15.8.2024

Translation: machine translated

The Premier League introduces a new system for recognising offside. Thanks to machine learning, the positions of limbs are calculated even if they are not visible. The iPhone has a key role to play here.

For several years now, several European football leagues have been using the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for controversial situations on the pitch. For fouls, goals or offside. Offside situations in particular are a constant source of controversy, as they are very difficult to recognise - sometimes it is a matter of millimetre decisions. Especially when the players are standing close together, the referee can hardly recognise whether a part of the player's body is offside, even from different camera angles.

FIFA system causes problems

In 2022, world football's governing body FIFA will introduce systems that use machine learning to simultaneously track the movements of limbs and the ball. The aim is to create a more accurate basis for decision-making. The software recognises a total of 29 parts of a player's body. The problem: the system causes long delays in play, is not particularly precise and is therefore prone to errors, as the Wire portal writes.

The British Premier League is therefore breaking new ground. It has signed a contract with the company Genius Sports. The company has developed a technology that can take ultra-precise measurements of offside positions in football. The "Semi-Assisted Offside Technology" (SAOT) is based on a combination of machine learning models and several iPhones.

How does SAOT work?

Genius employee Matt Fleckenstein explains the system like this: Around the pitch, 24 to 28 iPhones are set up in rigs of two. This gives Genius between 7,000 and 10,000 data points and allows it to create 3D renderings of each individual player.

Up to 10000 data points are to be obtained with SAOT.
Source: FIFA

The result is a kind of virtual 3D mesh that shows the referees exactly where the offside line is. Thanks to the many data points, missing details - due to lighting problems, for example - are negligible. In addition, the iPhones have very high refresh rates, which also benefits the quality. In test phases, up to 200 frames per second were tested, but the decision was then made in favour of 100 frames per second.

The system recognises individual body parts and can determine where they are located if they are not visible (for example, if they are obscured by another player). This even applies to the tip of a foot. In this way, the position of the ball and that of each player (including goalkeepers) and their body parts are calculated.

As offside occurs when the ball leaves the foot of the passing player according to the regulations, it is essential that the position of all body parts of every possible pass recipient can be calculated.

The measurement system is to be used in the Premier League by the end of the current season.

Header image: Genius Sports

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Florian Bodoky

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Florian.Bodoky@digitecgalaxus.ch

I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.

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