Serie A, first league to introduce semi-automatic offside. The Serie A Calcio will be the first tournament to implement the technology, which debuted at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Italy's Serie A will introduce the semi-automatic offside detection system on the first matchday after the Qatar 2022 World Cup break on 4 January, making it the first league to do so.

"We are ready to apply also in Italy, as in the World Cup, the semi-automatic offside already from the resumption of the championship on January 4," Italian Lorenzo Casini, president of the Serie A League, revealed on 'Rai Italia'.

Serie A will thus be the first league to introduce this system which works with between 10 and 12 cameras installed at the top of the stadiums - in addition to the televisions - that track more accurately the position of players and their limbs, legs and arms on the pitch. The data collected, extracted from up to 29 different points, will be sent to the VAR room, which is responsible for reviewing the action and calling the main referee in the event of an irregular position. The aim is to achieve greater accuracy in decision-making and reduce the time taken for each review.

"After Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup, as a league we have a duty to propose reforms in all areas, for example improving VAR and effective playing time," added the president of the Italian domestic competition's organising body.

Serie A accelerated the processes to implement the system after the match between Juventus and Salernitana on Sunday 11 September, when the VAR made a mistake in throwing out the offside line that cost Juve a legal goal in stoppage time when the game was tied at two all.

Criticism.

One of the big controversies of the semi-automatic advanced position in Argentina vs. Saudi Arabia was the disallowed goal to Lautaro Martinez.

The technology, which will be used for the first time at the Qatar 2022 World Cup, was highly controversial on the debut of Scaloni's team when it disallowed a goal to Lautaro Martinez. Papu Gomez put the ball to Lautaro Martinez, who controlled the ball and scored in front of the goalkeeper with a touch of extreme quality, pinching the ball over Al Owais. A goal that nobody thought would be disallowed: the semi-automatic offside showed that only the Argentine striker's shoulder was offside.

Source: EFE.