[Saba Sports News] Javier Tebas, President of La Liga, confirmed this Monday that a fully automatic offside detection system will be introduced in La Liga and Segunda División matches next season, expressing his hope that the system will be operational from the very first round of fixtures. Tebas reaffirmed La Liga’s commitment to the media following an event organized by La Liga, held at the headquarters of the Higher Institute of National Defense Studies in Madrid. “The technology is already underway,” Tebas noted. “It now depends on a few technical issues, but it will definitely be implemented next season, and I hope it will be in use from the first round.” Currently, La Liga uses a semi-automatic offside system, which still requires manual intervention by VAR officials, particularly when selecting the famous and controversial “frame” used to determine offside positions.
The editor believes that the new change will involve embedding a microchip inside the match ball, which can accurately detect the exact moment a player touches the ball. Combined with the players’ positional data captured by special cameras installed around the stadium, this will put an end to those troublesome “key frames”, hairline decision disputes, as well as the frustrations faced by production and technical staff.