FA Cup finally set to debut semi-automated offside technology in English football | OneFootball

The FA Cup will welcome semi-automated offside technology for its English football debut.

Seven of the eight fifth-round ties will utilise the groundbreaking technology, which is designed to improve the efficiency of VAR checks.

Premier League stadiums will roll out the technology, however, the Preston vs Burnley tie is the only exception for the fifth round.

A statement issued on Thursday morning confirmed the Premier League would look to introduce the technology in its competition later in the season.

The Premier League hopes SAOT will reduce the length of offside checks by an average of 31 seconds.

VAR will be used at all eight ties, a joint statement from the Premier League, the Football Association and Professional Game Match Officials Ltd confirmed.

The Premier League has worked with technology provider Genius Sports on the new offside system.

The original plan had been to introduce it in the Premier League after one of last autumn’s international breaks, but those deadlines came and went.

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Speaking last week, Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes said the technology was still on course to be introduced this season.

He said there had been “significant progress” made over the last four to six weeks.

“The system that we’ve adopted, we believe it to be the best system,” he said.

“We believe it to be the most accurate and the most future-proof system as well. I have to confess, given the difficulties that we had over the first few months of the season, I had severe doubts about this but the progress made over the last four to six weeks has been significant.”

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Scholes insisted introducing it with potentially only a handful of games to go would not create an integrity issue.

“The operation of semi-automated offside technology does not change the integrity of the offside law and doesn’t change the integrity of decision-making,” he said.

“We have got 100 per cent accuracy (on offside after VAR checks) this season, so it won’t improve the accuracy. What it does is make the process more efficient.”