17 Oct 2020 22:45:23
Genuine question. How is the decision made when to pause the vision for an offside decision? As in, is it a bloke with his finger on the pause button judging when the ball has left the passers foot/ head? If so, a tenth of a second error could be significant, much the same way a10mm line call on the offside can be.

{Ed002's Note - It is not a button but a dial that allows scrolling.}

18 Oct 2020 03:46:44
I've seen an article last year actually about this. That the cameras operate at a certain amount of frames per second that makes a big difference. For example if the pause is made when the player makes the pass you could also choose other frames which look like the correct moment the ball is played but in those frames the offside player or last defender has the ability to be change positions despite all looking like those frames were accurate as the time of pass. There is human judgement at play here and they can only select the best moment that they think. I'm not sure that the cameras are capable of being able to constantly focus on zoomed in footage of the ball and foot making contact to pinpoint the exact moment that is correct. It's nothing that should be over analysed as we get too hung up on decisions being made on fractions as it is and I remember the writer of the article saying he's worried that soon we will see people debating the timing of the pass as being controversial as time goes on with VAR.

I don't think anyone ever inspects the accuracy or even glimpses at the player making the pass to ever argue that point and I hope it stays that way too.

18 Oct 2020 04:01:52
How many frames per second are we talking about.

{Ed001's Note - 25.}

18 Oct 2020 09:23:45
That's a pretty crappy frame rate being honest, for trying to find and confirm such fine margins.

{Ed001's Note - there is also motion blur to take into consideration.}