Premier League to Adopt iPhone-Based Offside Technology, Replacing VAR System

UK soccer matches to use iPhones to referee the offside rule

The English Premier League will be upgrading its existing and widely panned refereeing technology with a new system that will rely on iPhones to ensure soccer players obey the infamous offside rule. For years, the English Premier League has employed a video-assistant referee (VAR) to check whether players are offside when a goal is scored in high-level soccer matches. The rule, which refers to the position of players when a goal is scored, has been difficult enough to monitor by on-pitch officials, prompting the need for a fourth external official. While VAR relies on an official watching positioned cameras and theoretically should solve the monitoring issue, it hasn't been ideal. Its limitations, including delays and errors, has made it a hated part of modern soccer. To avoid the problems VAR has, the League is bringing out a new system for the 2024-2025 season. Referred to internally as "Dragon," Wired reports the system will center around the iPhone. Using dozens of iPhones around the pitch, high frame rate video will be captured and fed into a software tool, which will allow the smartphones to work together. The video is processed by the system, and can then identify the positions of players. At least 28 iPhones will be used in every Premier League stadium, with the built-in cameras of the iPhone 14 and newer models being used. Each waterproof housing contains up to four iPhones, as well as fans and a power source, and are positioned at key points around the pitch. It's claimed the system could be easily scaled up, depending on the future needs of the game. If more data is required about certain parts of the pitch, more cameras could be deployed to collect it. The result is a system that can track between 7,000 and 10,000 points on each player throughout the match. By contrast, previously employed systems could measure 30 to 50 data points on a player. It is claimed that the system is able to mitigate the occlusion problem, when parts of a player are not able to be seen by any of the positioned cameras due to other players on the field and stadium geometry. Part of this is that the system will capture up to 200 frames per second, beating the 50 or 60 fps rates of broadcast cameras used for VAR. It's even expected that the system will be able to detect upcoming events, such as a potential offside call. When these are detected, the frame rate can be scaled up for nearby cameras to cover the moment and increase accuracy. The software driving it all is based on machine learning. Based on the work of Genius Sports on capturing movement in the NBA, the system was trained on several seasons of soccer footage to learn when offside should be called. While AI will make a call based on what it detects for itself, it won't make the decision official for a match. Instead, a human will continue to monitor and make the final match-impacting call. Following the use of VAR, it's likely that soccer fans will be wary of new technology being introduced to the game. However, Genius and the EPL believe it's gone through enough testing. This has included validation by FIFA, which used players in a more traditional motion capture system being monitored by the system and the data sets compared. The Premier League is certainly satisfied with its accuracy. "We are confident that by using the newest and most accurate technology available we will see the time taken for offside decisions reduced significantly alongside a consistent application of the offside lines," said Premier League Chief Football Officer Tony Scholes. Even so, football followers probably won't have confidence in the system until they see it in action and working properly.

English Premier League to adopt iPhone offside technology -- rage at Apple instead of incompetent referees this season

The FPL's new semi-automated offside technology will be powered by iPhone. Are you fed up with poor VAR offside decisions in the English Premier League taking forever? Well, it looks like the world's most popular soccer division will introduce a fleet of the best iPhones to take charge of offside calls. According to WIRED, the League is set to introduce a "new semiautomated offside tech later in the 2024-25 season," using a new "smartphone-based system known internally as 'Dragon.'" The system is made by Genius Sports and its subsidiary Second Spectrum who provide lots of tracking data in the NBA. 'Dragon' will use "dozens of iPhones" capturing "high-frame-rate video from multiple angles." This will completely replace the current Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology which is often slow and sometimes even incorrect. WIRED claims this is just the beginning and could introduce "new motion-capture and artificial-intelligence models across many other sports." Genius Sports claims 'Dragon' will use at least 28 iPhone cameras in every Premier League stadium, with some stadiums getting more iPhones depending on the size. The exact model of iPhones expected to be used is unclear but they will be iPhone 14 and newer, so expect to see some iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro cameras on the sidelines this season. WIRED's exclusive report states, "Once the iPhones are positioned around the pitch, together they capture a constant stream of video from multiple angles. Camera mounts can be moved to change coverage zones in certain facilities, per Genius, but will typically be stationary during actual play to ensure proper coverage and avoid recalibration needs on the fly. This wealth of visuals apparently gives Dragon the ability to track between 7,000 and 10,000 points on each player at all times." 'Dragon' captures video at 200 frames per second (fps)with the initial Premier League system capped at 100 fps. That's an insane amount of data points that will hopefully drastically improve offside calls in the Premier League that kicks off its new season on Friday evening with Manchester United vs Fulham at Old Trafford.

iPhones used to detect offside rule breaches in Soccer matches

The English Premier League is ditching its current system of video assist for referees in favor of a new one which uses dozens of iPhones to capture high frame-rate video from lots of different angles. The system, pioneered by a US company known for its work in NBA baseball, will be used to detect breaches of soccer's most controversial rule, known as the offside rule ... The offside rule says that a player cannot receive the ball from a fellow player while in the opposing side's half of the field unless there are at least two defending players between them and the goal (this can include the goalkeeper). The rule is intended to prevent a situation when players just hang out near the opposition's goal, waiting for an opportunity to receive the ball. The idea is that the game is more exciting when it's harder to get the ball into a position where a goal can be scored, though some take the view that more goals would be scored without the rule, and that's what spectators want to see. One major criticism of the offside rule is that it's almost impossible for the referee and other officials to accurately detect breaches, given that it often comes down to tiny distances, and things as fiddly as whether a player's hand passed ahead of the position of an opposing player's foot on the opposite side of the field. To address this, a video assistance system has been used, which uses pixel-level measurements, but even so, claimed accuracy is still only 96%, and many complain that the time taken to review the results interrupts the flow of the game. A new system known as Dragon is now being introduced. This uses dozens of networked iPhone 14 models to capture the action from multiple angles, and uses AI to provide a rapid finding. The referee will still make the final call. Wired reports. Dragon, according to Genius, will initially use at least 28 iPhone cameras at every stadium in the Premier League [...] The system uses the built-in cameras of iPhone 14 models and newer. The iPhones are housed in custom waterproof cases adorned with cooling fans and are connected to a power source. The team designed mounts that hold up to four iPhones clumped together. Once the iPhones are positioned around the pitch, together they capture a constant stream of video from multiple angles [...] This wealth of visuals apparently gives Dragon the ability to track between 7,000 and 10,000 points on each player at all times. High frame-rate shooting is key, as the critical moment may fall between two frames when video is shot at 50fps. The iPhone system, in contrast, can capture up to 200fps. AI is used to ramp up the frame-rate when needed.