On 1 July 2022, FIFA announced that the World Cup in Qatar would be the first men’s World Cup to use semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). The system combines optical limb tracking with a sensor embedded in the match ball to give video match officials an automated alert when an attacker is in an offside position.
Each stadium was fitted with 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted under the roof. They follow the ball and up to 29 data points on each player - all the limbs and extremities relevant to an offside decision - at 50 times per second. The official ball, adidas’s Al Rihla, carried an inertial measurement unit at its center that transmitted data 500 times per second, allowing precise detection of the exact moment a pass was kicked. Combining these feeds, the system computes the offside line automatically.
It is called semi-automated, not automated, because a human still validates the result: the video officials check the automatically selected kick point and offside line before informing the on-field referee, a process meant to take a few seconds. Confirmed decisions are then turned into a 3D animation shown on stadium screens and to broadcasters.
Why business readers should care: SAOT is a model for keeping a human in the loop. The AI does the precise, repetitive geometry; a person retains accountability for the call - a pattern many regulated industries are adopting for high-stakes automated decisions.