Premier League to Introduce AI Offside Tech, Promises Faster Decisions

When the 2024-2025 Premier League season begins this weekend, referees will be equipped with an advanced AI tool designed to enhance the accuracy of offside calls. 

The semi-automatic offside technology (SAOT), which debuted at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, employs sophisticated tracking to deliver precise offside decisions.

Clubs voted unanimously to introduce the technology at a meeting in April, where the league officials said the technology will “provide quicker and consistent” identifications of potential offsides.

An example of how SAOT works | Credit: Asian Football Confederation

The introduction of the AI-powered offside system will be a welcome one for fans and pundits as offsides routinely dominate post-game conversations almost every single game week.

For those unaware, a soccer player is considered offside if they are in front of the last defender (not including the goalkeeper) when the ball is passed to them. To avoid being offside, the player must be level with or behind the second-to-last opponent at the moment the ball is played.

However, given the pace of Premier League games, there’s often significant room for error.

The introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in 2019 was meant to alleviate “clear and obvious” decision-making errors. However, the technology often led to more problems and delays in determining if a player was offside, much to the frustration of fans.

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Several high-profile incorrect offside calls occurred last season, including the controversial decision to rule out Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham due to “significant human error” by the referees, who were later removed from officiating.

SAOT is designed to evaluate such errors, offering a more definitive decision on whether a player is onside or offside.

A suite of cameras installed around Premier League stadiums uses computer vision technology to track player movements and the ball’s position. This system can determine offside calls by drawing virtual lines to show the precise position of the attacking player relative to the last defender. 

SAOT operates at much faster speeds than traditional VAR officials, enabling offside decisions to be made in seconds.

It’s not entirely automated, however, as human input is still required to determine if an offside player is actively involved in the attack.

Having been extensively used in the last World Cup, as well as the recent Euro 2024 tournament in Germany and the UEFA Champions League, the technology is coming to the Premier League.

Fans in the stadium will be able to see automatically generated 3D representations of the offside call on screens around the grounds, which will also be shown during broadcasts, a marked improvement on VAR as no one knew what was going except for the referees themselves.

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“Semi-automated suggests to us where the offside line is, but we still have to check the kick point — make sure the computer selected the right one, make sure it's selected the right players, because we have to recognize who is the ... the defender that we're interested in, make sure it's identified the right players,” Howard Webb, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL)’s chief referring officer explained earlier in this year. “It's just like a validation really, of what the computer is suggesting to us.”

The technology won’t be in place in the first game week, however.

The AI offside tool will be first used in the game week after the international break in September, meaning the earliest potential first game to use SAOT would be Sept. 14’s opening fixture when Manchester United will play Southampton.