Semi-automated offside on track for World Cup

The semi-automated VAR offside technology driven by AI and used at the

World Cup in Qatar

is still on track. This is what The International Football Association Board (The IFAB), which makes the rules for football, is saying.

Using VAR to decide if a player is offside has taken up to four minutes, but the new technology is supposed to cut that time down to three or four seconds by giving more information faster. During the Club World Cup in February,

was the first

Premier League

team to use the technology. This was only two months after the first semi-automated system came out.

The IFAB is still talking with FIFA about how to use the improved VAR system. The goal is to use the offside technology at the World Cup in November. At a news conference on Monday,

FIFA president Gianni Infantino

said, "It looks very good and hopeful."

"Our experts are looking into [the trials] before we decide whether it will be used for the World Cup or not." Pierluigi Collina, in charge of referees at FIFA, added: "I'm very sure we can move forward with this, which is what I think. We want decisions to be right, made quickly, and accepted by more people.

"We have seen that these goals were met in games where the semi-automated offside was used. It works the same way as goal-line technology, which is well-liked by the football community. No one says anything about this, though. We are sure that the semi-automated offside will get the same reaction in terms of acceptance."

If the technology works well at the World Cup, the Premier League plans to use it in the 2023-2024 season. Trials are also being done to give attacking players an advantage when they are offside. Collina said that the rules are being thought about.

"We think that a very slight offside is not important enough in modern football to be punished," Collina said. "So, this experiment is being done. Due to the pandemic, the competitions where these trials were allowed had to be put on hold or stopped for almost two years.

"So now we are testing [youth football] in the Netherlands,

, and Sweden, and once we have evidence and numbers from these tests, we will come to a conclusion." The IFAB also said it was looking into ways to cut down on time-wasting. In a 90-minute match, the ball is usually in play for only 54 minutes.

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