First things first, the name. Why semi-automated? Don’t be confused – it just means humans have to verify the system’s decision.
We have already seen SAOT in this season’s Champions League and in the FA Cup from the fifth round onwards.
When a tight offside decision goes to a VAR review, SAOT steps in.
Previously, officials in the VAR room needed to decide on three key things – when the ball was kicked, where and at what angle the defender’s body was when the ball was kicked and where and what angle the attacker’s body was at the moment of contact.
Viewers at home have seen this manual process played out with lines drawn with crosshairs on freeze-frame replays shown on their TV screens.
All three of those decisions are now being automatically taken by the technology to remove some elements of human subjectivity, such as which frame to freeze as the ball is kicked.
Bespoke cameras have been installed beneath the roof at all 20 Premier League stadiums to monitor a variety of key elements.
About 30 cameras – working at 100 frames per second – track the exact movement of the ball as well as 10,000 data points on the bodies of all 22 players.
It means it can be automatically determined whether an attacking player’s body was beyond the last defender at the exact time the ball was played.
VAR officials check the system has correctly determined the three key points it measures before confirming the decision. The on-field officials then inform the players.
A 3D animation of the decision produced by the artificial intelligence is then played on television for viewers at home and on big screens in the stadium.
As yet, the officials have not spoken to the crowd, as has been seen in the Carabao Cup.
