All 20 Premier League clubs have voted that the league implement semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) beginning with the 2024-25 season, according to numerous reports including The Athletic. The new technology will be implemented with hopes that it will shorten the time it takes to identify offside decisions, reduce or eliminate erroneous offside calls, and reduce the number of goals that are waved off after lengthy VAR checks.
A Premier League statement said the following:
“At a Premier League shareholders’ meeting today, clubs unanimously agreed to the introduction of semi-automated offside technology.
“The new system will be used for the first time in the Premier League next season, and it is anticipated the technology will be ready to be introduced after one of the autumn international breaks.
“The technology will provide quicker and consistent placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and will produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters.”
The Athletic had a nice video explainer of the technology and how it works on Twitter.
In short, cameras mounted inside the stadium will track all 22 players via “29 data points” on their bodies. A sensor inside the ball will also be able to more accurately indicate when a ball is passed, reducing both the hated “lines” on VAR screens as well as eliminating camera frame rates that can have an impact on when the lines are drawn in particularly close offside decisions.
Viewers at home will get 3D visualizations of exactly what was offside at the point the pass was initiated, which sounds neat but may also codify the dreaded “toenail offside” decisions that have plagued VAR over the past few years.
One concern is how the system will handle situations where there are a lot of players involved in the play, for example, during set pieces around the box, and whether SAOT technology might get choked with too much data. In that situation, the Premier League said, the old VAR system of cameras and lines and massive, massive delays will be used as a backup.
All that said, this seems like a good and smart system, assuming they can implement it correctly and it works as designed. One of the major criticisms of VAR use for offside as it is now is that it just takes too long to come to decisions, and there’s also just enough human error to make some exceptionally close decisions feel arbitrary. SAOT will, according to the league, reduce both considerably (although — prediction — Liverpool fans will still somehow attribute any decision that goes against them to a vast conspiracy).
The new SAOT system will not be ready for the start of the season, but the Premier League hopes to implement it sometime in the fall.