Adidas’s Euro 2024 ball will contain technology able to help referees make handball decisions.
The German sportswear brand says its Fussballliebe will contain a rechargeable microchip that can send precise ball data to video match officials in real time.
The chip was used in the semi-automated offside decision-making process in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
However, Adidas says the technology can also help video assistant referees (VARs) identify every individual touch of the ball, reducing time spent resolving handball and penalty incidents.
According to The Times, the technology will also be used in offside decisions at the men’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany next summer.
It will be used in conjunction with limb-tracking technology to help determine whether there has been a handball in the lead-up to a goal by showing where exactly the ball has struck the body, the paper reports.
How does it work?
Adidas’s football contains a rechargeable motion sensor which is positioned at the centre of the ball.
The microchip can detect up to 500 movements per second and can accurately pinpoint how and when a ball is touched by a player.
It was used alongside movement-tracking technology in the semi-automated offside decision-making system of last year’s FIFA World Cup to detect the moment the ball was played in the build-up to a goal.
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The system is semi-automated because referees still have to decide whether a player in an offside position is interfering with play.
UEFA – the governing body responsible for the European Championships – already uses a similar semi-automated offside decision in its premier club competition, the Champions League.
However, the system relies on movement-tracking technology and cameras and does not currently involve the use of a microchipped ball.
The semi-automated offside system is different from the VAR system used in the Premier League, which involves officials manually drawing lines to measure whether a player is in an offside position.
The lines are drawn based on five cameras calibrated before the match, with the system also able to use broadcast cameras to identify the point of contact with the ball by the attacker and synchronize all cameras for this purpose.
The Premier League is reportedly considering switching to a semi-automated offside system next season – though nothing has been announced.
Handball decisions in the Premier League are also reviewed with the current VAR system.