“FIFA” heralds an “unprecedented” technical step during the World Cup in Qatar

 The Football World Cup in Qatar may witness an unprecedented technical development in calculating infiltration cases, according to Arsene Wenger, director of development at the International Federation of Football Associations, "FIFA", on Tuesday.

The new development is related to the detection of intrusion cases "automatically" in 2022, specifically during the Qatar World Cup, according to what the former technical director announced, who confirmed that there is a "good chance" to achieve this, without announcing the methods used in the new technology.

"I maintain confidentiality, but it will be the next developments in arbitration," Wenger said, during a press conference in Paris, before holding seminars dedicated to arbitration, starting from the 20th of this month.

He stressed that FIFA's efforts "require" to find the fastest solutions to controversial situations through the use of technology, noting that some controversial decisions regarding offside cases are sometimes taken using the video assistant referee technology "VAR".

FIFA had announced in June 2020 that it was studying the decision to switch offside arbitration by "developing a semi-automated technology to indicate offside, in order to provide +VAR+ with additional information that would simplify the decision-making process and develop image analysis".

The schedule for this project is expected to be accelerated in light of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21 - December 18).

In March, Wenger proposed to the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which is responsible for enacting the laws of the first popular game, to amend the offside rule by excluding cases in which "a part of the body with which an attacker can score" remains in a legal position.

In the same context, FIFA President Gianni Infantino considered this amendment within the framework of "making football more attractive" by promoting offensive play and a more accurate analysis of cases allowed by "VAR", even if no experiments were programmed for the proposed amendments.

And about organizing the World Cup every two years instead of four, Wenger confirmed that he was "open" to all suggestions and "understands the reluctance, because there is an emotional side" to this issue.

Opposition voices rose in the world of football in protest against the change in the periodicity of the World Cup, starting with the President of the European Football Association, Slovenian Aleksandar Ceferin, to the coach of the France national team, Didier Deschamps, through the Professional Players Union (Fivepro) and links of fans from all over the world and several parties.