Premier League to Introduce New 'Dragon' Offside System in 2024-25 Season

TapTechNews August 14th news, the Premier League officially announced that it will introduce a new "Dragon" semi-automatic offside judgment system in the 2024-25 season to replace the controversial Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, mainly by using at least 28 Apple iPhones from different angles to shoot high-frame-rate videos.

TapTechNews note: Offside is a foul situation for attacking players in a football game. That is, when an attacking player passes the ball forward, at the moment the football is kicked, if the teammate on the attacking half is closer to the goal than the opponent's second-to-last defending player and wants to use this position to disrupt the game or gain benefits, the player will be judged offside by the referee.

This new system, developed by GeniusSports and its subsidiary SecondSpectrum, will be used in all Premier League games starting from this season, marking a significant change in the league's handling of offside judgments. Before that, the technology of these two companies has already been applied in the NBA basketball field.

According to the official introduction, the uniqueness of "Dragon" lies in that it can monitor 7000 to 10000 points on each player in real time, capturing details such as body lines, muscle mass, and even bone structure, thereby helping to achieve more accurate offside judgments.

First, at least 28 Apple iPhones (at least the 14 series) near the stadium record videos at a speed of 100 frames per second, and then the AI software is used to analyze the videos to detect whether there is an offside situation.

It is worth noting that even with this more advanced monitoring technology, it is still the referee who makes the final decision on the field, and this system is only to support the referee, not to replace them.