The Spanish Super Cup begins next week in its Final Four format, with the Royal Spanish Football Federation taking the opportunity to introduce new technologies.
According to the MD, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will be the first to use automatic VAR for offside. The technology, which automatically creates an image of offside decisions and gives the referee a clear decision, has already been used in the Champions League, European Supercup and World Cup this year.
The idea is that it should eliminate controversy from decisions by letting machines, rather than humans, position the lines for an offside call. This also saves time.
On the whole it worked well at the World Cup, except for one instance where a referee team seemed to forget to use it and the decision was made by looking at the screen. With this technology, it would be taken out of the hands of the referee.
The goal-line technology is not used. The RFEF considers that the images are sufficient and that the significant cost does not justify their use.
The semi-final between Real Madrid and Valencia takes place next Wednesday at 21:00 CEST and Barcelona meets Real Betis on Thursday at 21:00 CEST. Traditionally, Antonio Mateu Lahoz is considered one of the RFEF’s top referees, but given the controversy surrounding his recent performances, he may be ‘rested’.
