Semi-Automated Offside Technology in Football: Could AI Replace Referees?

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Wireframe Football Close Up

Few professions appear impervious to the apparently inevitable encroachment of AI or some other technology. From Hollywood moviemakers to small-agency designers, customer service operatives to coders, and even lawyers and therapists, there is widespread anxiety that AI-powered systems could soon make many current roles obsolete… for humans at least! And since the advent of VAR in football (which now uses AI for some of its processes), the question is being posed: could AI replace referees and match officials completely?

On 1st April 2025, the Premier League announced that “semi-automated offside technology (SAOT)” would be utilised in league matches from 12th April. Despite the date of the announcement, this was no April Fool’s joke, although linesmen and women across the line probably wished it was. So what is this new technology and will it spell the end of life in the middle for the men and women in black? Indeed, will it ensure every future offside call is 100% accurate?

How Does the Semi-Automated Offside Technology Work?

According to the Premier League, “Semi-automated offside technology will provide more efficient placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and produce virtual graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters.”

The system will automate “key elements” of the decision-making process in relation to offsides, specifically for calls that are particularly tricky or close. As things stand, the video assistant referee (VAR) needs to liaise with replay operators to figure out the so-called “kick point” and thus add lines of calibration to determine the relative positions of the attacking and defending players at that specific moment in time. Apparently, the SAOT streamlines all this, which should cut down the time it takes to reach offside decisions by a noticeable amount.

Once a decision is reached, it is reviewed by the VAR and virtual graphics will be created (also automatic, or fans could be waiting all day!). These “virtual graphics” (which look a little like a 1990s Super Nintendo game) will be shown to fans watching at home and in stadiums, presumably to prove the veracity of the decision and to quell any feelings of discontent among fans of the team against which the decision has gone. Apparently, according to the Premier League, “The technology maintains the integrity of the process while enhancing the speed, efficiency, and consistency of offside decision-making.” Which sounds great… unless you run the line for EPL matches and you suddenly begin to feel rather redundant.

The SAOT will apparently track 10,000 data points on the bodies of the players and will use artificial intelligence to assess whether a certain player was offside when the ball was struck. The Premier League has not addressed the concern that certain AI systems are occasionally prone to “hallucinations” (with large language models sometimes simply inventing the existence of scientific studies or newspaper articles). It might be quite amusing, on a certain level, if the video graphic broadcast in the middle of a big Premier League football match is of Howard the Duck in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader or something equally bizarre – but we presume any tech glitches perhaps wouldn’t “hallucinate” to that extent.

Should Refs Fear for their Jobs?

Yellow Corner Flag on Football Pitch

For a long time now (at least since the start of the 1992/93 season!) football has been very much about the moolah. So ultimately, if it works out cheaper for the Premier League to employ computer technology or AI instead of actual people, it’s probably inevitable they will choose that path. Perhaps we’ve been inadvertently living in a “golden age” for football officials, at least in terms of the numbers involved.

Once upon a time, albeit back in the early days of association football in the 19th century, there was simply a single referee tasked with ensuring players adhered to the laws of the game. The addition of linesmen took the heat off a little, but more recently there is a veritable menagerie of officials involved in Premier League matches: the referee, two assistant referees, the fourth official, the VAR and the assistant VAR.

That’s quite a wage bill, one would assume. So if the Premier League can trim a little fat and leave just the lean meat of officialdom, they most surely would. Although, to start with at least, the addition of certain technologies might increase the number of humans involved to ensure things run smoothly and in case the system crashes (presumably they would revert to good old hit-and-miss human decision making in that scenario).

The days might certainly be numbered for those running the lines. After all, if the SAOT can figure out offside decisions (and potentially other decisions in the future) quicker and more accurately than humans, why have humans running up and down the touchline at all, having to deal with the elements and the probable abuse of fans? But we certainly can’t say the same for the actual referees.

However much technology comes into play in football, there will almost certainly be the need for an official “in the middle” to communicate with players and – if necessary – get between them when things are getting a little feisty. In the absence of a robotic humanoid that can run faster and look in four directions at once, while calculating the intent of players based on microexpressions or body language, we think refs are safe enough although we wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see such robot refs trialled at some point in the next decade or two.

What Technology is Used in Premier League Matches?

As well as the semi-automated offside technology that will begin on 12th April, the Premier League already utilises plenty of tech when it comes to decision-making. Goal-line technology (sometimes called a Goal Decision System) has been used in the Premier League for more than a decade now, with the first goal officially awarded by the technology being Edin Dzeko’s strike for Man City against Cardiff City on 18th January 2014 (there’s a gem for pub quizzers!). Before that, the Premier League had used Hawk-Eye to assist with goal-line decisions (from the 2006/07 season).

Of course, one of the more recent technological “advances” (or not, depending how you view it) is the VAR system. Obviously VAR has had its critics, but perhaps some of the biggest errors have come about due to human (rather than tech) errors. And perhaps the introduction of SAOT will help iron things out and, crucially, speed up the processes. Whether tech begins to take on even more prominent roles within football remains to be seen. But if we were assistant referees, we’d certainly be a little nervous, even if the potential cost savings are small in the scheme .