This season, iPhones will play a crucial role in deciding offside violations in English football, as the Premier League adopts a new technology from Genius Sports. The league has partnered with the company to implement a system called Semi-Assisted Offside Technology (SAOT), which uses iPhones combined with machine-learning models to assist game officials in making offside calls.
Offside violations in football are often contentious and challenging to determine, especially when players obstruct officials’ views or when multiple camera angles fail to provide enough clarity. While Video Assistant Referee (VAR) systems have been used for years to fill these gaps, they have limitations. For instance, FIFA introduced machine learning-powered limb-tracking tech and embedded football sensors in 2022, but these systems sometimes cause delays and errors in decision-making.
Genius Sports aims to overcome these challenges with its SAOT technology, which is part of the company’s GeniusIQ system. This technology can create accurate 3D renders of each player, helping officials to precisely define the offside line and the players’ positions on the field. The system relies on deploying 24 to 28 iPhones, mainly iPhone 15 Pros, around the pitch to capture comprehensive coverage. These iPhones, mounted in pairs on custom rigs, provide between 7,000 and 10,000 data points, generating a detailed 3D virtual mesh of each player.
The high framerate recording capability of iPhones, up to 200fps, allows the system to capture critical moments in the game, such as when the ball leaves a player’s foot. The data is processed by GeniusIQ’s computer vision and predictive algorithms to identify body parts and predict their positions even when obscured from view.
The Premier League is expected to fully implement this technology by the end of the year, promising to enhance the accuracy and reliability of offside calls in the upcoming season.