Football’s ruling body on Monday said that five substitutes would be permanently introduced for all top games and that a 3D offside detector is closer to being introduced for this year’s World Cup.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the substitute change, which was started in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, followed “strong support from the entire football community”.
He said after the annual meeting of the International Football Associations Board that experts would decide on whether “semi-automatic offside” detection would be used for the World Cup that starts November 21.
FIFA’s referees chief Pierluigi Collina said he was “confident” that the system would be introduced in time for the 32-nation tournament.
Tests were started to speed up decision making and reduce the scope for controversy in making offside calls at top games.
The system monitors 29 data points on the limbs of players to create a skeletal, three-dimensional model that is reviewed pitch side by the referee.
English Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said that more than eight million data position points are recorded each match.
The system has already been tried at the FIFA Arab Cup last year in Doha and the Club World Cup in February.
“We are very satisfied so far and our experts are looking into it before deciding whether it will be introduced for the World Cup,” Infantino told a press conference.
It is officially known as “semi-automatic” as it will still be the referee that makes a final decision on an offside ruling.
FIFA is also looking into introducing a Video Assistant Referee ‘light’ with fewer cameras to a wider number of competitions.
VAR is currently only used at international tournaments and major national championships.
