Premier League fans get to see what is to come as SAOT (semi-automated offside technology) makes its English football debut in the FA Cup fifth round this weekend.
It should be a key addition, helping reduce the time needed to make offside decisions and produce clearer graphic visualisations of offside decisions.
SAOT has already been used at two World Cups (Qatar 2022 and Australia and New Zealand 2023 women’s tournament), in the Champions League since the 2022-2023 season, in the Serie A since January 2023, and in La Liga since the start of this season.
SAOT has been operating in the Champions League since 2022-23 (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
What is SAOT?
SAOT is a tool for the video assistant referee (VAR) that automates key elements of the offside decision-making process. These key elements are the ‘kick-point’ (the exact time the ball was played) and the positioning of the relevant defender and attacker.
For offsides, VAR confirms or recommends a change to onfield decisions made by the referee and linesmen on close calls, so SAOT will assist with these decisions.
How these calls are currently judged, without SAOT, is through replay operators (RO) who manually determine the ‘kick-point’ for the offside decision and then draw lines on the relevant…
