The Information · France · MIT Technology Review
Heads in the game
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The Argentina v. France final of the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar was shaping up to be one of the most epic games in soccer history.
Key facts
- After validating SAOT, tweaking it, and testing it in many situations, including some official FIFA matches in 2021 and 2022, “FIFA felt it could be used at the biggest stage, which was the World
- Lionel Messi, the Argentine captain and soccer legend, had launched the ball past the French goal line, giving Argentina a 3–2 lead
- The MIT Sports Lab’s origin story begins around 2010, when Anette “Peko” Hosoi, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, fell in love with downhill mountain biking and needed a new bike
- Over the course of the 64-game tournament, SAOT assisted in more than 150 offside calls, some with weighty effects
Summary
The Argentina v. Lionel Messi, the Argentine captain and soccer legend, had launched the ball past the French goal line, giving Argentina a 3–2 lead. If the head referee called Martinez offside, the goal wouldn’t count. The weight of more than one offside call stood on that referee’s shoulders; it was the weight of the World Cup itself. But in 2022, for the first time in the storied competition’s history, referees had access to semi-automated offside technology (SAOT), a system that could rapidly analyze the play and detect an offside player.