FIFA “AI is used to judge VAR in soccer game… ”

It has been reported that the International Football Federation FIFA is experimentally employing AI for VAR decisions used to support referee decisions during soccer matches.

Football is a sport in which dozens of people chase a small ball on a wide field, so there are scenes where it is difficult for a referee to make a fine decision. First of all, FIFA has denied the machine judgment that interferes with the flow of the game, saying that soccer judgment is made by humans.

However, from around 2016, FIFA reviewed the introduction of the VAR system, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia in 2018 introduced video judgment through the VAR system for the first time in World Cup history. Accordingly, the VAR system is also being introduced in games hosted by national soccer federations.

The field where the VAR system plays a big role is offside judgment. Offside is a video judgment by the VAR system separate from the referee on the spot to determine the line where the attacking player is. However, in VAR systems so far, whether or not you are in an offside position is manually recorded, so the subtle case in seconds has been controversial.

According to foreign media reports, FIFA is paying attention to a system that combines AI with a VAR system to make a semi-automatic offside decision. The VAR system can track the athlete’s leg captured by the camera at 15 to 20 points and determine which leg is closest to the goal line. And it detects the moment the ball is playing and the AI makes the offside line in the correct position on the video.

FIFA has already experimented with a VAR system using AI in Qatar games. FIFA said this result was quite positive, and said that it will not only shorten the inspection time but also increase the accuracy compared to the existing VAR system.

FIFA plans to repeat this test in the first half of this year to conduct automatic AI learning as accurate and fast as possible. Just as AI affects everyday life, it can be one of the technologies that will have the greatest impact on football. Related information can be found here .