麻豆传媒

During matches, football teams can now use . What exactly are these?
These are video-based systems that track player position, and wearable devices that can do the same plus gather extra performance and physiology data, such as heart rate.

Video-based systems have been providing post-match data to managers to inform tactics, and generating statistical analysis for the media, for some time. Teams have also long used wearables in training. We鈥檙e now allowing players to wear them during matches providing the devices are safe and the information isn鈥檛 received or used in the 鈥渢echnical area鈥�, where the team staff sit during the game.

Why have you decided to allow use of these technologies during games?
Some of these devices are tiny and can be sewn into clothing. We don鈥檛 want referees to be in the position of having to try to enforce a ban on technology they can鈥檛 see. Also, we have listened to those managers who want to be able to use them to monitor match-day player performance.

Are there potential medical benefits to using the devices?
You might expect that a player who runs 12 miles in a particular game, despite usually running only 10, to be exhausted and prone to injury. We鈥檙e trying to find out whether player-tracking can prevent injuries, but so far that鈥檚 just speculation. We need to gather more data. If we find out that access to data throughout games can prevent injuries, we鈥檒l be the last people to oppose it.

Why stop staff seeing the data during play?
We want to protect refereeing decisions by preventing managers getting access to broadcast video replays. We don鈥檛 want a team with access to live match data to have any advantage over opponents that don鈥檛. Half-time analysis of match stats is, however, allowed.

Referees still aren鈥檛 allowed to access video replays during games. Will that change?
We鈥檝e been discussing that for the last two years, and are now at the stage of developing protocols for potential experiments. The Brazilian Football Confederation and US Major League Soccer are interested in running trials, and the International Football Association Board will decide in March whether to proceed. We鈥檇 like to run two years of tests and consultations, so a final decision could come in 2018.

Football accepted goal-line technology only years after other sports had similar systems. Why the change of heart?
I believe football will become much more technological, but it is a game played all over the world, including in areas where smartphones are not used, so change takes time. Some argue that football should be kept as simple as possible. It鈥檚 a valid argument, but at the same time we shouldn鈥檛 close the door to technologies that can improve the game.

(Image: The IFAB)

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淟ate equaliser鈥�