PREM chiefs have admitted the new state of the art offside technology system may now not be ready until after CHRISTMAS.
Club bosses voted to approve the use of Semi Automated Offside Technology – with special computer-aided tracking to pinpoint the exact position of players – at their summer meeting, with a promise that it would be ready by the end of the November international break.
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The new system is designed to end the issues caused by PGMOL operators at Stockley Park drawing the offside “lines”.
Last week, Leicester manager Steve Cooper accused Stockley Park of an “an awful human error” after a VAR intervention saw an offside call against Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta overturned.
Cooper claimed the lines had been drawn from the wrong TV frame – emphatically denied by PGMOL in a meeting with the club.
Mateta was ruled onside because of the agreed 5cm “tolerance” zone for close decisions and it is likely that, with no such margin of error when SAOT is used, the on-field ruling would have been confirmed.
But at their first “shareholders” meeting of the season yesterday, the 20 clubs were told by Prem chief football officer Tony Scholes that they should “manage their expectations” over when the new technology would be ready.
The Prem opted against using long-term tech partners HawkEye in favour of US-based Genius Sports but that has meant extensive trials being required.
In his presentation to the clubs, which also saw Scholes make a strong defence of referees and their decisions this season and question the behaviour of players and managers, he said League bosses were willing to wait until they had proof the system was foolproof before recommending its introduction.
At this stage, despite lengthy trials, there are still some concerns that need to be addressed and it was suggested that deploying the technology might have to be delayed until the “winter”, potentially after the turn of the year.
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Scholes, though, did push home the message that PGMOL HAS upped its game so far this season.
Despite a series of moans from clubs, Scholes confirmed that only one incorrect Key Match Incident decision which was subject to VAR oversight had been awarded – Bournemouth’s wrongly chalked off “winner” against Newcastle.
But he did point out that “participant behaviour” – including dissent from players and managers – was an issue that has not helped the situation.
New time-keeping rules have reduced the average amount of added time per match by around 100 seconds while the average VAR check is now down from 44 seconds to 25 seconds.
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