Robots Might Soon Replace Linesmen on The Touchline – FIFA

FIFA is planning to remove linesmen from the touchline and replacing them with robots to enhance the efficiency of pitch activities.

An expertise department has already been formed to look into the possibility of computers to replace humans to oversee offsides and throw-ins.

If the test by the department proves successful, linesmen might be rendered jobless, proving that technology is outthrowing human involvement in football.

Some football analysts say that the use of technology has improved the way things are handled in the pitch reducing the human errors that would have been encountered if otherwise.

The VAR technology, for example, has been disputed by several managers and fans, who say that the system is full of errors, can easily be manipulated by match officials and is time-consuming.

Every matchday in the English Premier League is now considered incomplete if VAR is not involved, especially on the negative.

“There is no fun behind VAR technology. It is killing the joy of fans celebrating a goal amid fears it could be disallowed upon review,” some die-hard fans would say.

With the FIFA president Gianni Infantino still in office, the anti-VAR team should still expect a lot more of the disappointments. Infantino seems to be in full support of anything that is technologically advanced. We can call him a VAR advocate.

According to the Premier League VAR chief Neil Swarbrick, people are against the VAR system because they are not used to it yet.

Technology has really come in handy in football and has decided most games especially in the UEFA champions league. The goal-line technology was the best because it is automatic, VAR is sometimes fair, but at times, it is not even close to anything fair.

Human is to error. Computers were made by humans. So, we can say the computers are also bound to errors. But only through manipulation by humans.

The anti-VAR wagon does not have to worry about the turning of linesmen to robots yet. The FIFA team still has to take years to consider the impact and success of the VAR system first, then decide on adding a new computer-controlled system.

Read Also: EPL 2019/2020 Season Kicks Off, What Should We Expect?