By Daniel Orme
The Premier League will use semi-automated offside technology next season.
A statement from the Premier League read: "At a Premier League Shareholders’ meeting today, clubs unanimously agreed to the introduction of Semi-Automated Offside Technology.
"The new system will be used for the first time in the Premier League next season, and it is anticipated the technology will be ready to be introduced after one of the autumn international breaks.
"The technology will provide quicker and consistent placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and will produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters."
It is suggested that there is hope that the techology will cut VAR checks for offside offences by an average of 31 seconds.. It is hoped that the technology will be introduced by one of the autumn international breaks next term, so potentially as early as September.
The technology has already been used in top-level football. It was seen at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and was a roaring success - hence its introduction into the Premier League.
UEFA also introduced the technology into the Champions League after years of testing. Speaking at the time, Roberto Rosetti, UEFA's chief refereeing officer, said: "For the good of the game and the good of refereeing, UEFA always wants to use the best technology available.
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"UEFA is always looking for new technological solutions to improve the game and support the work of the referees. And this is what we want from semi-automated offside in the future."
He added: "Why is this important for VAR? Offside decisions have a significant impact on the average VAR review time," Rosetti said. "To identify the correct line position working on a two-dimensional image is very complex. With semi-automated offside we will save time."
There have been a number of contentious decisions when it comes to offsides in the Premier League since the introduction of VAR. Marginal decisions have been criticised in the past, while there have also been glaring errors.
Luis Diaz scored at Tottenham back in October, only to be flagged offside. Replays showed he was in fact onside. VAR stuck with the original decision. The PGMOL admitted that the decision to rule out the goal was an error.
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