Football Beyond 2000

Could you watch Euro 2000 on you PC?

Live Web Football
(Picture from FIFA 99)

EVER get annoyed that your favourite team's matches never get shown live on TV? It is now possible to watch live games on the Internet by a technique that uses radar to keep track of the players and ball. But it's not going to look like normal TV. The players and ball will be represented in a 3D animation, with the result looking more like a computer game than TV.
It uses radio technology in the form of a thin credit card sized transponder sewn in to the player's shirt. It receives small amounts of microwave radiation (don't worry, your not going to cook the world's football stars, the radiation is about 70 times less than a cellphone), the transponder bounces back the signal to the receivers that allow the computer to fix the player exact position. This computer representation of the game is in turn sent in real time over the web. With the freedom of a 3D model it means we could watch the game from any view, seeing what the ref saw if there's a controversial decision.
Whether FIFA would ever allow a transponder in the ball could be draw back. Even though the transponder is small FIFA would not allow any possible interference with the ball.
The other implications are on off sides and whether the ball has crossed the goal line, with the position of the players and ball being precise there could be no argument with the computer.
It may never take off but if it does the technology is currently being successfully trialed and would be ready for Euro 2000.
(Based on an article in New Scientist No. 2132)

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Ref's Use Radio's

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - The referee and linesmen officiating at Liverpool's English premier league match with Tottenham Hotspur used radio technology to communicate with each other for the first time on Saturday.
Referee Stephen Lodge was able to communicate with his linesmen Dave Morrall and Paul Prosser with Lodge pressing a button on a waistband when he wanted to talk with them. The experiment has been given the go-ahead by the English Football Association in a bid to improve officiating at matches after widespread criticism this season.
Premier league spokesman Mike Lee said: "A number of ideas are under consideration to help improve officiating for next season." At February's meeting of the International Football Board, the game's ultimate law-making body, approval was given for a number of trials and experiments using technology.
Electrical sensors, for example, have been placed in the goalposts at Sheffield Wednesday to determine whether the whole of the ball has crossed the line for a goal. That trial is being continued next season although it is a private experiment and has no bearing on the outcome of actual matches played.
Referees and linesmen have been able to alert each other electronically for a number of years with linesmen pressing a button on the handle of their flags to attract the referee's attention.
While FIFA, world soccer's governing body, have given approval to these low-key innovations, they are determined not to allow action replays to be used to assist the officials.

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Copyright ã Thomas Wordsworth 1999