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FIFA backs semi-automated offside system to boost VAR

AFP

FIFA hopes the rolling out of its semi-automated offside technology being trialled at the Club World Cup will not only speed up decision-making but offer increased clarity for football supporters.

The optical tracking system was first tested at last year’s Arab Cup in Qatar, and the ultimate goal is for it to be fully in use for the World Cup in the Gulf state later this year.

Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, on Wednesday told reporters VAR had proved “very successful” since its introduction but conceded more consistency is needed.

“It’s not yet at the very, very top… the same speed decision-making process. Being fast and being accurate don’t work together,” Collina said at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi.

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“It’s important the video officials get an accurate decision, but we are aware we need to reduce the time, particularly with offside.”

“Sometimes it takes a bit longer to assess an offside decision, particularly in very tight incidents,” he said.

“The goal is already celebrated, everybody is waiting and then there is a goal disallowed, or the other way round… and then after quite a long time there is the final decision.”

The data-driven, limb-tracking technology relies on a series of dedicated cameras and broadcast cameras around the stadium to give the exact position of players on the pitch, offering referees precise information within seconds.

To provide improved accuracy, the system currently generates 18 data points per player — tracking the various parts of the body to create a skeletal, three-dimensional model.

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The aim is to increase that to 29 for the World Cup to provide further precision, according to the head of football technology at FIFA, Sebastian Runge.

Once a final decision is made, the artificial-intelligence driven technology turns the images into a 3D animation that can be displayed on the big screen at grounds.

“By taking that data, we can enter the 3D world and we can create animations, that can explain perfectly whether a player was onside, how much of that player was offside or onside,” said Runge.

“We put that in an animation that will be shared with TV and our giant screen operators and we can inform the spectators in a clearer way on offside and onside decisions.”

– More than just a robot –

Despite the ever-growing influence of technology, FIFA insisted the match officials will always make the final call.

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A dedicated VAR assistant is responsible for monitoring offside, checking incidents as they happen rather than waiting for a stoppage in play.

The assistant notifies the main VAR official, who makes the decision and then speaks to the referee.

“I know that someone called it ‘robot offside’; it’s not. The technology is simply a tool used by human beings,” said Collina.

“The referees and the assistant referees are still responsible for the decision on the field of play. The technology only gives them valued support to make more accurate and quicker decisions.”

Collina used the example of a goal ruled out for offside in Palmeiras’ 2-0 semi-final win over Al Ahly on Tuesday as an area where more can be done to keep fans fully informed.

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“We were discussing before how to get the attention of the people in the stadium because if you don’t know (the animation) is coming… you don’t look at the giant screen,” he said.

“It’s not possible to get this image within the same stoppage of play. It takes roughly 30 seconds, that’s why it’s shown at the next stoppage of play.

“Maybe we need a way to alert fans to the image on the big screen.”

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.