Living Football | Semi Automated Offside Technology
hello everyone and a warm welcome from the home of fifa here in zurich switzerland we are just a few months away from the fifa world cup 2022 and today we will be talking to fifa's iconic former referee pierre luigi colina about one of the most important changes to off-site detection we will see in qatar and we will show you a groundbreaking fifa project in south sudan one of the newest members of the fifa family we're ready so welcome to living football [Music] the fifa world cup is rapidly looming on the horizon we are looking forward to the biggest sporting event in the world and as we all know harnessing technology is one of the explicit goals in the president's vision 2023. today we want to talk about the next milestone in the history of the var with pierre luigi colina chairman of fifa's referee committee and fifa director of football technology and innovation johannes holtz muller johannes thanks for being with us it's nice to have you here again on the sofa thank you but we want to start with pierre luigi the best referee of all time pierre luigi bonjourno fifa has just announced that semi-automated off-site technology will be used at the fifa world cup in qatar what are we looking forward to the vir has been a great success so far although the implementation of var has been very successful so far we have not to forget that it's something relatively new the first match played with this new technology was uh only in 2016. two years later at the fifa world cup uh in russia with a great success and and now var is uh used almost in all the major competitions around the globe but we are aware that there are some aspects that need to be improved and among them certainly offside we know that sometimes it takes too long to make a final decision on offside incidents particularly when the incidents are very difficult to be assessed today players attackers and defenders are very good in playing around the offside line and very often the the offside incidents are really really very tight therefore we decided to develop together with various partners some new technologies to try to limit the time needed and also to be more accurate for this reason at the at the fifa world cup 2022 in qatar uh there will be two new technologies uh implemented one is the so-called semi-automated offside technology and the other one is the connective ball we will speak about the connected ball later with johannes last time you've been on the show piero eg we already spoke about semi-automated off-site technology can you briefly explain again for those who didn't see the episode how it works and why it is called semi-automated offside it's a semi-automatic offside because the final decision is still taken by the video match official without going too much into details there will be 12 cameras tracking the position of the players on the field of play each player has up to 29 data points and data will be sent up to 50 times per second so the position of the player will be determined very accurately on the field of play in particularly limbs as well as all the other part of the body relevant to the offside to the outside similarly to the position of the player also the the ball is is tracked by these 12 cameras and it is a very new ball is a connected ball with a sensor inside sending data up to 500 times per seconds this is very important to determine with the highest accuracy the kicking point which is also relevant to determine the position of the player at that particular moment of course these two these two new technologies will help very much the the check of the position because whenever a player was in an offside position receives the ball an alert will be sent the var and the var will be able immediately to check this position with the technology itself drawing the the offside line this will reduce the time needed for the assessment as well as the the accuracy will be improved the aim is to uh to give an answer uh as quick as possible with this answer very very very accurate as they are as to validate the decision uh the final decision before informing the referee this is the reason why it is called semi-automated offside because there is still the intervention of the human being to make the final call how does this new technology work towards referees on the field our objective is to to prepare the referee as best as possible to avoid to use the technology but the technology is there to to avoid that a mistake is committed even the best referee can commit a mistake is a human being we know it uh and that's why we we implemented a system using tools that can really reduce the possibility that a human mistake can affect the outcome of a match for fans watching matches in the stadium or at home how will they receive this information this is something that we also considered so once the decision-making process has been completed and the decision taken by the var the same data points which were used to determine the player's position will be generated into a 3d animation and this animation will be shown on the giant screen at the fifa world cup 2022 stadiums as well as will be pro as well as will be provided the uh tv broadcasters and uh the tv viewers will be able to see uh them on their uh televisions you were one of the best well let's say the best referee in the world do you wish there had been something like this back in like 1998 nobody likes to make a mistake even myself and when i was on the field of play i never liked to be to be wrong so certainly i would have been delighted to be somehow saved by the intervention of technology when i committed a mistake which almost never happened pierluigi thank you very much mila grazia have a great day and we want to pick up right here on the sofa with johannes holtzmuller fifa director of football technology and innovation johannes it's the second time for you in the studio seems you're a friend of the show now how are you i'm doing well thank you so much it's always a pleasure uh being here in the studio and talking with you about the latest technologies in football and it's always so interesting you are fifa's director of football technology and innovation as we mentioned and have been leading the way when it comes to harnessing technology in football and the var for example was a great success at the fifa world cup 2018. so what was fifa's thought process in the wake of that tournament in terms of improving the system yeah exactly as you said it was a great success and of course we try to constantly improve the different systems and solutions that we bring to the world of football and by monitoring not only the fifa tournaments but also the leagues around the world uh who are applying uh var we realize that there are certain areas where we can further improve this the setup and the workflow so the most obvious one for us was the offsite decision making process because we checked with our providers and we found out that in average on a global level it takes 70 seconds until the decision for an offside incident is made so that means 70 seconds that the players have to wait on the pitch the referee have to wait on the pitch but also the fans the audience have to wait so therefore we said okay this is something we want to improve and so we our main objective our main goal was to make this process faster as well as more accurate or as accurate as possible so there have been several trial runs also at the fifa club world cup now how has the technology grown over time and how reliable is it yeah so we started as you correctly said after the last world cup and in 2019 we had a very first meeting with technology providers and universities around the world we told them about what we plan to do so we want to reduce this time this is needed to make this this decision as well as to make it as accurate as possible at that time only a few companies said okay we would like to go with you and we would like to look into what we can do so we started this process in 2019 with first demonstrations with first ideas and discussions are possible about possible solutions but then unfortunately in 2020 due to covet we had to postpone all our tests so actually we started with really physical tests in 2021 so we went to different stadiums around the world we implemented different technologies from different providers and we looked into all the different possible solutions and the best solutions that we always brought to fifa tournaments like the fifa club world cup or the fifa arab cup to find out okay what is the best solution to reach our goal so finally we decided to have semi-automated offsites technology which is based on tracking technology as well as a connected ball because we believe that it's very reliable so all the test results that we have seen are very reliable as well as the data is very accurate so we use different universities around the world to help us to to analyze to validate this data but also to improve this data together with the technology providers besides covet what was the biggest challenge yes i think the biggest challenge was or has been so far that we are using different technologies on one side limp tracking so optical tracking with cameras installed in the stadium on the other side the connected ball where data is coming out of the ball at the end to connect this data to synchronize this data i think that was definitely one of the main challenges and where we worked a lot on to bring the all the different data sources together that it can be used in a very simple way by the var at the end so finally how quickly can offsite decisions be made now best case scenario yes i think you uh paluichi also uh mentioned something in this regard as i mentioned or as i said before we are talking about 70 seconds at the moment as an average so all our testifs or in our tests we have seen that we can do it in a much shorter time period so we can significantly reduce this uh required time which means at the end that fans in the stadium the referees on the pitch as well as the players they do not have to wait so long any any longer so what is the next step towards the fifa world cup now will there be final tests yes of course so we in the coming weeks we will continue our testing we want to define fine-tune the system for the world cup but of course also as a next step we are planning to create a global standard to enable all the leaks around the world to use this technology and then finally of course as we have already done but we will continue to do that we will inform all the teams participating teams of the world cup as well as the media and the public about what semi-automated offsite is and how how it can improve the football experience yeah it starts here thank you very much johannes miller well we are looking forward to significantly faster and more accurate offside decisions it was great to have you here you're always welcome thank you very much johannes thank you jessica and speaking of being welcome one of fifa's youngest member associations is south sudan an east african state founded in 2011. earlier this year fifa president johnny infantino noted the significant commitment to develop women's football in south sudan in collaboration with the fifa women's football division a lot has happened since then and women's football is alive and kicking [Music] we at fifa have launched our women's football strategy in 2018 and one of our key objectives was to grow participation of girls and women across the world in order to be able to grow participation in some of our member associations we have to address their context and understand how best to support them when speaking to south sudan we understood that apart from having access to sports and football the girls were facing different challenges in their particular case it was also related to menstrual hygiene and access to sanitary products and so the idea came together with the south sudan football association that we start a pilot project that uses football activities but then around those football activities provides capacity building for the girls and women around menstrual hygiene as well as then providing them with the sanitary pads that are reusable for up to one year this way we start addressing those girls that are already in football making sure that they come back to football that they can perform but at the same time go to school because we've seen that this is not an issue just in terms of accessing sport but also accessing education and going regularly to school the menstrual hygiene product is a pilot project that fifa has has kindly taken to south sudan i think it's the first of its kind and it's um yeah it's huge for us because especially in a country like south sudan where we've come if you look at the poverty line i mean 80 82 of the people in this country is below that line and they live off like two percent um or two dollars per day so um this project really opens our eyes gives us a platform to create more ambassadors for the program but also you know just to create awareness around the problem that female athletes and just females in general in this country face we understand that we in africa we have a lot of barriers for women to participate in sports but especially in football but currently with the this huge campaign from south sudan footballization and women's section within the south sudan football league session as well also the the fifa encouragement we have this energy and uh and there is now we have there is a quick response to this campaign and this year we have introduced for the first time the league the women league in different states so there are so many clubs and the competition is going on so we thanks the fifa and we thanks in particular we thank the women football in fifa for encouraging us and also we we also thanks the the calf women football development for encourage women of south sudan to come to this level in order to address their grassroots activities their youth competitions their senior competitions we have to understand where are these girls coming from and what is particular for their environment what we've learned coming to south sudan in couple of our visits is that even within the country different in different regions different girls are facing um different challenges and it's really bringing them together to understand what are those challenges and if they are related to the menstrual hygiene topic and sanitary products we can address it through this project and going forward understanding some of the other challenges to really make sure that there is a long-term football development in the country that allows girls a very clear pathway to play but also to remain within the game once they are done with their playing careers south sudan for years have you know have had different perceptions when it comes to menstruation or the menstruation cycle of a woman they feel it is something that should be a secret to the point that some cultures are not so open to their children and these may drive to a lot of bad stuff or maybe challenges that a girl would face knowing that her parents or the people around her have been a little bit ignorant so having this project in south sudan first of all is so important to the point that at least it changes our mindset on how menstruation should be handled and it also gives us an awareness that menstruation is part of life but then how then do you handle it when it comes to you and how do you keep on with the activities and this has been some challenges most especially when it comes to the women in football so i feel this project is already changing a lot in the girls playing football in south sudan the sweat team here is trying to pave way for the young ones for the future generations show them that girls can also play football because for a long time football has been considered a taboo for the girls but now at least people are accepting that football is part of us and that we can also get involved in it fifa just uh having this project to help the the young girls who are upcoming footballers it's something that is really great to us because so many girls face so many challenges and it's a great initiative that they've taken to come and help us [Music] good job ariana de mirovich is joining us now fifa's head of women's football development it's a pleasure to have you here ariana welcome on the living football sofa for the first time we just saw you in the video visiting south sudan what can you tell us about that trip well the the south sudan trip has been really exciting it's my third trip to south sudan in the last six months because we've started a project with south sudan football association on women's football but also the project addresses the topic of menstrual hygiene management and building capacities of girls and women on the topic using football as a tool to to be able to address that challenge in the country the south sudan women's national team were in attendance which was also really lovely to see what role can they play in a growing football in south sudan and b being role models for young girls in south sudan the the south sudan women's national team absolutely amazing pleasure to have them with us in this project they went through a train the trainers workshop because they themselves proactively express that they would like to be part of the project and be closer to the community and they would like to be trained so that they can themselves go into the community and address the topic with the girls as well and for them it's also a platform to empower them because they're currently in a role where they see themselves as players but they are starting to see themselves also as ambassadors to the little girls in the country as well and as you mentioned before alongside the tournament sanitary products were provided to the girls why is this so important i think sanitary products are a big barrier in south sudan mainly because we address the topic of menstrual hygiene management and we do raising awareness or education around the topic but what we've discovered speaking to the girls and women in south sudan is that the access to the sanitary products is very limited and it also carries a certain economic burden on the family so to be able to provide something to the girls that they can reuse to up to one year that is something that is of theirs that empowers them it gives them a bit of ownership and something to also take care of while in the process their care taking care of their own health is extremely important step in this project well in south sudan is one of the youngest countries in the world and 73 of the population are under 40. that brings huge responsibility but also a huge potential what has fifa already done to improve football there especially in the women's game well yes as you mentioned south sudan football association it was one of the newest member associations of fifa so together with our colleagues from the member association division we are working hand-in-hand with the football association of south sudan on different projects in the last couple of years they've been the ones in the region that launched their women's football strategy were first one of the first member associations they launched it in 2019 of course like any other member association they've had challenges with covid but in the season 2020 2021 they've launched their first ever national league which allowed their teams to compete in the proper format and the girls to be seen across the country as well but also to have that experience of what it is playing football on that level um we work all that with the help of fifa absolutely with the help of fifa but also help of cough we've managed to work with their national teams to also get them ranked for the first time they are ranked in the women's side of the game as well and then through the programs that we've launched on the fifa side which are development programs we launched in 2020 they are benefiting through league development through women's football campaign and then attaching this menstrual hygiene project to those existing programs that that fifa offers finally they also individuals from their association such as their head coach their and their executive board member they are part of our other programs like the coach mentorship program that we've just recently launched so their women's national team coach is one of the mentees of the program and then the women in football leadership program we've done in march this year the executive board member of south sudan football association was one of the participants so the idea of fifa is to strengthen their existing structures build their capacity not just through one project but really giving them an opportunity to to strengthen their entire ecosystem of women's football and increase the professionalization in football which is in line with the president's vision to make football truly global definitely ariana your thief is head of women's football development one of the leading women of fifa what brought you into football well football's always been a passion of mine since i was very little my father was a goalkeeper so i would say we would we were we are a football family football is a is a conversation that we have daily in the family so it's something that i always saw the value of and and appreciated the experience of football and then of course i come from bosnia and herzegovina also had an upgrade bringing post-war and maybe didn't have all the same opportunities that girls and women have across the globe so maybe i could not reach some of these things but for me was always something that fueled my passion to make sure that some other girls somewhere around the globe get that opportunity and now you're helping girls all over the world so congratulations and ariana what is the next step in terms of women's football development well as you know we have a very ambitious strategy for women's football um and we also have uh the women's world cup in australia and new zealand uh coming very soon we still have time but there's a lot of a lot of things going on on the women's football development side as i mentioned we do have development programs that more than 80 member associations are currently benefiting from and the idea is really to work hand in hand with with those mas but also empower the other ones to apply as well and try to tap into projects such as south sudan that are quite particular to the context that then benefit the member association but also help us implement our strategy thank you very much ariana it was a pleasure to have you here please come and visit us more often on the living foot thank you very much thank you very much ariana well football is such an important tool when it comes to empowering girls and young women all over the continent so we take a leap from east to west africa where champions emerged in guinea [Music] laguna honchos [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the football [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in addition to guinea the project has also been implemented in benin and togo this project is just one of many and in our forthcoming episodes we continue to showcase some of the myriad projects that fifa and the fifa foundation are developing supporting and funding all around the world well that's it again for this episode of living football looking forward to the next one until then all the best stay healthy and bye bye [Music] you
2022-07-03 03:46
