Russia World Cup lightyears ahead

The Russia World Cup is set to introduce technologies that would have grand impact on how the game is played. With just a couple of days left for the football extravaganza, here we look at the technological supports that are going to be used in this World Cup.

The various tools that operate in the background will provide additional support to the referees and important additional information to the participating teams for their decision-making process during the 64 matches thus helping to improve the performance on the pitch.

Goal-Line Technology

The goal-line technology is nothing new to the world as it was previously used in 2014 World Cup in Brazil and is also widely used in Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga.The technology supported the referees in three incidents at the last edition of the FIFA World Cup and as many as eight goal situations at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. The referees officiating in this World Cup will also be seen relying on this technology as all the stadiums will be equipped with goal-line technology that processes information from 14 high-speed cameras and sends a signal within one second to the referee’s watch indicating when the ball has crossed the goal line.

Video Assistant Referee

The controversial Video Assistant Referee, widely known as VAR will be used in the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia after the technology was given a green light by The International Football Association Board (IFAB) back in March 2018. The technology will be used as an additional supportive tool for the on-field referees and will only be used to correct clear and obvious errors and missed incidents that can decide the fate of the game.Many had fears about the technology, one that UEFA has chosen not to adopt in its Champions League till at least 2020

VAR is controversial since it has not completely eradicated wrong decisions from the game. In the Italia Serie A and the Coppa Italia, VAR was called upon a staggering 1,736 matches across 346 matches and while only 105 decisions were changed, but of those, 17 are believed to be wrong, meaning 16.2 percent of the decisions that were changed were wrong.

Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems

Hand-held devices will also make an appearance for the first time in a World Cup with coaches being allowed to get real-time match analysis from their team’s analysts sitting in the media tribune.

Positional data from two optical tracking cameras located on the main tribune that track the players and ball will be available to the analysts in real time alongside live footage from selected tactical cameras.