Premier League uses semi-automatic offside to speed up VAR calls | football

The Premier League will introduce semi-automated offside technology from next season in the hope of reducing the time it takes to make VAR decisions.

The system will use camera footage and tracking software to calculate the position of players at the moment of a potential offside, eliminating the need for VAR teams to do this. It is hoped that this process can be shortened from a few minutes to 30 seconds or less.

At a Premier League shareholders meeting on Thursday, clubs voted unanimously to introduce the technology. The first deployment is expected to take place in the fall, but not at the start of the season. The league had previously expressed reservations about adopting the technology, but received the full support of chief referee Howard Webb, who said he was “delighted” by the news.

Semi-automatic offside technique was successfully used at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This eliminates the need for VARs to manually add lines to camera images and creates graphics that can be shown to fans in stadiums. Depending on the complexity of the assessment, it may still be necessary for VSAs to assess offside decisions in the event of a goal being scored.

Webb and the PGMOL referee panel are currently discussing allowing fans to view footage examined by referees on VAR monitors at the same time as officials. There is an expectation that referees in stadiums will announce short messages about the results of VSA decisions next season.

In a statement, the league said: “The technology will enable faster and consistent virtual offside line placement based on optical player tracking and produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced stadium and broadcast experience for fans.”