A VAR check announced on a big screen
The game between West Ham vs Brentford will begin with VAR using virtual offside lines rather than semi-automated offside technology
The Premier League have confirmed that West Ham United's match against Brentford on Monday night has begun without the use of semi-automated offside . VAR will instead use virtual offside lines as they have done during previous seasons.
The change is due a global Amazon Web Services outage on Monday that has affected over 1,000 companies and millions of people. An announcement was made by the Match Centre four minutes before kick-off at the London Stadium.
"Due to the impact of today’s global AWS outage, this evening’s match will begin without the use of Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT)," a post on X reads. "If required, the VAR will use virtual offside lines, as in previous seasons, to determine an offside decision. If SAOT becomes available during the game, it will be implemented when appropriate."
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Andy Madley is refereeing the match in question, with Craig Taylor and Nicholas Hopton his assistant referees and Thomas Bramall the fourth official. Jarred Gillett is the VAR, assisted by Tim Robinson.
Semi-automated offside technology has been used in the Premier League since mid-April and was also used in the last season. It is said to place virtual offside lines with increased consistency, efficiency and speed by utilising optical player tracking.
However, it does not affect the accuracy of decisions. SAOT also produces the virtual graphic that appear on screens inside stadiums and as part of live broadcasts.
Jarred Gillett
Jarred Gillett is the VAR working without the use of semi-automated offside technology
The league developed the system in collaboration with technology company Genius Sports and Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO). Genius Sports appear to have migrated their onsite infrastructure to the AWS Cloud last year, according to a from SoftServe, the company who claim they partnered with Genius Sports for the migration.
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