Page 20 - issue 29 En

ELITE ISSUE 29, MARCH 2021

AI and Football: AI is eating

the beautiful game

yasmin tarek, 4th level

Football is a sport that individuals from all walks of life VAR is used with the use of video footage and a
collectively enjoy and adore. With approximately 4 billion communication headset to review decisions taken by the head
followers, it is one of the most popular sports in the world. Its referee. At the same World Cup, Electronic Performance and
intensely competitive nature instills in teams a wild passion to Tracking Systems (EPTS) was launched which include
try to win each and every game. As a result, it is very difficult camera-based and wearable technologies that monitor, track,
for football managers to formulate effective tactics against their and analyze the performance of players. The players wear
opponents. them between their shoulders. The sensors mounted on the
system measure variables such as the distance covered by a
Managers usually look at all sorts of data about their rivals in player, the area on the field where a particular player spent
order to devise these tactics. This includes details such as the more time, and their heartbeat rate.
opposing team's playing style and formations, the approach they
adopted in their previous games, the pluses and minuses of each Later, AI was introduced in GLT to bring the adventurous
opponent player, the strategies used in tough situations by their game to the next level of suspense. In partnership with
best players, etc. Managers have begun to employ emerging Adidas, Kairos Technology (a German company) created a
technology in recent years to help them interpret this information special ball with the Goal Decision System (GDS). It
and build winning strategies for their teams. generates a sound from an inserted microchip in the referee's
headphones to tell whether or not the ball has reached the goal
Football was relatively late in embracing the data-driven strategy line. Also, it can quickly pick up the mistakes that a human
that has long been the tradition in sports such as baseball, eye can miss. Furthermore, Video assistant referee (VAR)
cycling, or car racing. This was due to the resistance to use technology was also developed after introducing AI in the
technology in football. The International Football Association technology, where AI's optical tracking technology
Board (IFAB), considered that with in-game decisions, the augmented the field during a football match to enhance
"beautiful game" did not require technological assistance. decision-making. No human intervention is expected to judge
Nevertheless, with a significant number of refereeing mistakes in offside in matches after this development.
global events like the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and huge pressure
on such billions worth of industry, the IFAB allowed different On top of that, AI became synonymous in forecasting the
technologies to assist referees in making the right decisions. results of matches. Machine learning algorithms have the
potential to predict the success or loss of football games by
One of the first technologies to be implemented in football is analyzing big data. Stratagem, the UK-based sports betting
Goal Line Technology (GLT). GLT, introduced in 2012, assists company, developed an AI-based device in 2017 to predict the
in accurately measuring whether or not a ball has exceeded the outcomes of football matches by pairing human analysts with
goal line. Another recent technology debuted during the 2018 deep neural networks. In the same year, another start-up
FIFA World Cup is Video Assistant Referee (VAR). company named Unanimous AI correctly predicted the score
of the Super Bowl results of the National Football League.

19