Today, technology is advancing at a staggering pace to improve our lives in all areas. The rapid penetration of these developments into the world of sports is also inevitable. These days, technology plays a prominent role in world football matches. Every day, companies around the world come up with new innovative gadgets to help teams prepare against opponents, improve practices, and most importantly, the matches themselves. If you want to learn about the most important technologies that FIFA has officially adopted and are now being used to improve our favorite football matches, follow Zoomit.
Judges wireless communication system
It is very important to have the best possible communication for football referees, helping the referees to consult and manage the game in the best possible way and make impartial judgments. But the distance of the referees with their help on the one hand and the high speed of the game on the other hand make it difficult to do this. Thanks to the new wireless communication system, referees can quickly and safely communicate with their colleagues and exchange information about actions, situations and incidents. As a result, the main referee can make his decision in a few seconds after talking to the assistant referees and technical officials in any situation. This technology helps referees judge the game with complete confidence and bring a high standard and, more importantly, fair competition to the fans.
Goal line technology
The goal line technology is used to detect the complete passage of the ball through the goal line
Another technology has been developed and used to help the referees to decide whether the ball is scored or not in certain situations, which helps them in this difficult situation. Goal Line technology is used to detect the complete passage of the ball over the goal line. This technology uses special devices that scan the vertical posts and the goal line, helping the referee to recognize when the ball has crossed the line in situations that are not clearly defined. This technology will never take the place of referees and is only designed to help them make the right decisions. For a goal to be officially called and conceded, the goal line technology must confirm that the ball has completely crossed the line.
To ensure the correct and error-free operation of the goal line technology in football matches, this device has passed many tests. One of these tests is to ensure the accurate performance of the ball detection and tracking system in all weather conditions. These tests have been done in different football conditions, different fields, different goal nets and other things related to the matches. The Goal Line system uses 14 high-speed cameras (7 for each goal) that are installed on the stadium roof. These cameras are connected to a powerful computer image processing system that can detect the movement of all objects on the ground and even filter out obstacles such as players, referees and other disturbing objects. Of course, the object that is important for this system is nothing but the ball. This technology can determine the three-dimensional position (length, width, height) of the ball at any point on the ground with an error of less than a few millimeters. After the ball crosses the goal line, this system sends a vibrating and optical signal to the referee’s watch. In addition, the closed view images of the ball passing are also saved and can be played at any time.
Electronic performance and tracking system: EPTS
Electronic sports tracking and performance systems help soccer teams make informed decisions to improve their performance. These systems use cameras and transmitters that are worn by players and can be used to control and improve the performance of each player and ultimately the entire team. The EPTS system primarily tracks the position of the players and the ball, but it can be combined with micro-electromechanical devices (such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc.), heart rate monitoring devices, and other physical and physical parameters calculation devices. The main application of the EPTS system is in training to determine how each player performs during training.
These tools allow managers and coaches to select the right players for each match or plan for specific changes during the match. The manufacturers of these transmitters have made it possible to connect them to Internet software. Therefore, in addition to analyzing the situation of each player, coaches can also check the state of the whole team. As a result, the coach is able to have a detailed view of his team’s performance throughout the season and compare the players’ strengths and weaknesses. This system plays an important role in making key decisions and by providing valuable information about each player, it helps coaches and technical staff in identifying talent and selecting players.
There are currently three types of physical performance devices:
Light-based camera systems
Strengths:
- No disruption to the work of the players
- Easy access to the soccer equipment market
- high sampling speed; Ability to track the ball
weak points:
- Limited measurements
- Need manual settings to track each object
- Installation time
Local Positioning Systems (LPS)
Strengths:
- Variety and extent of measurement tools
- High accuracy of live measured data
- Utilizing ultrasonic band technology and reducing data exchange errors
weak points:
- Installation cost
- Installation time
GPS systems
Strengths:
- Lots of measuring tools
- Short installation time
- No need for an operator
weak points:
- Interference of the system with the waves of television networks during the broadcasting of matches
Video assistant referee or VAR
The advanced VAR system plays an important role in making key decisions in matches
The VAR system consists of an assistant referee who reviews the decisions made by the referee through video sources and communicates with him using a headset. In 2018, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) officially added VAR technology to the list of football rules, which will also be used in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Since its introduction, this system has been used in the national leagues of some countries and even in the World Cup in Russia. Is. VAR controlling team They have access to 33 television cameras, eight of which are slow and four are ultra-slow. In addition, they also use two offside cameras. The offside cameras analyze the game frame by frame to make the right decisions about the offside status of the players. These two cameras are only available for the video assistant referee team. Slow motion video playback is generally done for sensitive situations such as physical contact or error situations. Normal cameras are also used to evaluate cases such as the severity of the error or intentional Indian error.
The VAR system is only used in four situations where it can determine the course of the game:
- To check whether the ball is scored according to the rules of the game
This case is used when the scored goal is suspected to be an error or offside and may result in the goal being disallowed.
The VAR system can be used to announce a foul in the penalty area or a penalty foul. This system is also used to cancel the penalty announced by the referee.
If the referee calls a foul, VAR can be used to award a red card to the offending player.
VAR allows additional referees to step in when players are wrongly penalized. If this happens, the referee may base his decision on the suggestion of the controlling team VAR to change
New and improved technologies of the 2022 World Cup
Although the 2018 World Cup in Russia was a record breaker for the use of new technologies, FIFA also has new technologies up its sleeve for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which will gradually make their way to all competitions. In addition to the goal line and video assistant referee technologies that we introduced earlier, the 2022 Qatar World Cup will benefit from new technologies.
Semi-automatic offside detection technology
The semi-automatic offside detection technology helps referees and video assistant referees perform more easily and correctly in detecting the offside position. This technology uses 12 tracking cameras, which are installed under the roof of the stadium, and they monitor the movement of the ball and 29 points on the body of each player at a speed of 50 times per second, and recognize the exact position of the players.
Also, the new Adidas ball is equipped with an IMU sensor, which, by being placed in the center of the ball, sends the information of the shots to the control room 500 times per second and determines the exact time of the impact. By combining these two features and taking advantage of artificial intelligence capabilities, if an offside situation is detected, an alert is sent to the video assistant referees to review the scene.
If offside is confirmed, a 3D animation of the scene is created and shown to the stadium crowd and TV viewers to leave no doubt.
application FIFA Player
The FIFA Player application, developed in collaboration with FIFPRO, allows players and coaches to see their performance on the field based on statistics and graphs minutes after the end of the game. This information includes measured football data and physical performance statistics and statistical information. Statisticians and football analysts create the aforementioned information and statistics with the help of computer systems during the game.
Also, part of this information is shown in the form of graphic diagrams and augmented reality shapes for TV viewers, which doubles the pleasure of watching matches.
FIFA Football Data Ecosystem
Information and data play an important role in today’s football, and this information is interesting and useful for everyone, from the players on the field to the television viewers. For this reason, FIFA has created an ecosystem including a complex network of different information sources that provides the latest statistics and data to players, teams, TV channels and spectators in the shortest possible time.
This information is collected by various observers present in the stadium and sent to someone in the control room to record the moment. Technologies such as an optical tracking system have also been installed in the stadium, which records information such as the exact coordinates of the players along with their speed, distance, and direction.
All interested people, including analysts, coaches, teams and even the media participating in the World Cup, can easily access the said information and statistics through FIFA’s special platform.
Advanced cooling system
The 2022 World Cup is the first World Cup to be held in an Arab country, which usually has hot and humid weather. For this reason, Qatar has equipped seven of the eight World Cup special stadiums with advanced cooling technology that is unique in its kind. This technology transfers cool water from centers at a distance from the stadium and blows cool air to the spectators and even the players, bringing them an ideal temperature that has never been seen before. Therefore, not only the audience will enjoy watching the game; But the players can also show their best performance.
Conclusion
Football technology plays a decisive role in helping players, coaches, referees and even us spectators. In questionable situations, technology helps to confirm the decisions of referees, and perhaps to prove that one of our colleagues is wrongly favoring a team. Some of these systems, such as VAR, have been successful; But Some believe that technological innovations destroy the true excitement of sports, while others believe that technology improves sports. These technologies are so precise that they can detect the smallest mistakes. This article refrains from mentioning technologies that have not yet been approved by FIFA. As the role of technology in sports becomes more complex and expanding, we have to ask ourselves: Hasn’t technology already taken the fun out of sports?
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