On 14 June, UEFA Euro 2024 gets underway, kicking off with the hosts, Germany, taking on Scotland in what millions of home fans will be hoping turns out to be as much of a mismatch as the rankings suggest. For European football, the tournament is second only to the FIFA World Cup, offering what many hopes to be a showcase of the best players the continent has to offer.
However, throughout the domestic season – particularly in the Premier League – one consistent and much-debated topic has been the use of technology in the sport. Now, technology and football are connected across the board, from leisure to professional games, but one in particular may prove to be a bit of an irritant to fans, pundits, and probably some coaches.
Football tech’s everywhere
Football has long been embraced by technology, from sports gadgets to how it’s deployed in entertainment. One of the best-selling entertainment products in the world blends football and technology, as do some of the slots online with jackpots. Spinning the reels of Football! Gold Trio, for example, sees players collect coins that continually add to pots. These pots can then be won by the Gold Trio Respins, with a Grand prize of 1,000x on the table.
Away from entertainment, recreational footballers have been able to tap into an increasingly useful collection of apps and gadgets that allow for a far more accurate read on fitness and skill progression. Be Your Best is a prime example of this. Their training modes and tools Scenarios, Matchplay, and Companion all offer insights, analytics, and AI-driven training regimes that amp up in difficulty as is needed to progress. Matchplay, in particular, is very impressive, offering a virtual reality experience that currently stands as the closest thing to a real game in VR.
Technology to remain prominent at Euro 2024
Drawing the ire of many a Premier League fan, Euro 2024 will rely heavily on video assistant referees again. There will be a VAR, two assistant VARs, and then three more video operators, all for each game of the tournament. These video operations rooms have all be set up in Leipzig, which is the first part of former East Germany to host a UEFA Euros as well. The team will constantly check goals, penalty area incidents, red cards, and mistaken identity.
An element of the tech that looks to be very promising, if it works as well as hoped, is the new Adidas ball. The Fussballliebe uses the brand’s connected ball technology to send real-time data to the officials. It registers when the ball is touched, helping when combined with video technology to get VAR decisions done more quickly and with better accuracy. In theory, referees will just need to align the time stamp of the touch spike with the video.
The Fussballiebe has also enabled the use of semi-automated offside technology, or SAOT. The advanced camera tracking system that was used during the UEFA Champions League tracks 29 body parts on each player and couples with the touch tracking of the ball.
It should make offside calls much faster and accurate. Along with these, there’s the tech that just about everyone’s been happy with for years: goal-line technology. Each goal will have seven integrated cameras and sends immediate feedback to referees whether the ball has crossed the line.
