UEFA official: Women s European Cup will use advanced technologies such as semi-automatic offside and intelligent ball use

June 26, UEFA official news, the upcoming 2025 Women's Football European Cup will use a number of advanced technologies, some of which are used for the first time.

Video Assistant Referee (VAR)

This technology has been introduced into the UEFA Champions League since 2019. After extensive testing and referee training, its application scope has been expanded to other events, including all men's adult national team and club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the Women's Football European Cup.

How will VAR work in the 2025 Women's Football European Cup?

In all competitions in this event group stage, there will be a video assistant referee (VAR), an assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) and three video operators. Starting from the quarterfinals, the number of assistant video assistant referees will increase to two. The VAR center of this event will be located in Nyon.

VAR team will keep checking for obvious errors related to the following four key decisions:

1) ​​Goals

2) Events in the penalty area

3) Red card

4) Misident player

Video assistant referee will review all situations that may change the outcome of the game, but will only intervene if there is a significant error. The referee can pause the game during the review process.

If the review of the video assistant referee provides clear evidence that a serious error occurred in a critical situation, the video assistant referee can ask the referee to perform a live review. The final decision will still be made by the referee.

Video Assistant Referee may also consider any violations that may occur during the offensive phase before the incident.

For "factual" decisions (such as offside, fouls in or outside the penalty area), the video assistant referee can directly inform the referee of these facts without using the live screen, but the final decision is always made by the referee. Information about the review process will be displayed on the large screen of the court.

Semi-automatic offside technology (SAOT)

Semi-automatic offside technology (SAOT) will be put into use for the first time at the upcoming Women's Football European Cup in Switzerland. This technology allows the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) team to determine offside situations faster and more accurately by tracking 29 physical points for each player through 10 professional cameras installed in the stadium. Since the introduction of the Champions League in 2022, the system has been combined with smart match balls to instantly identify touch points in offside analysis.

Intelligent game ball technology

This Women's Football European Cup will use Adidas smart game ball technology for the first time, which can send accurate sphere data to video referees in real time. Combining player position data and artificial intelligence, this innovation helps improve the accuracy of semi-automatic offside systems and speed up decision making in games. In addition, smart game ball technology can help VAR referees identify every touch, reducing the time it takes to handle handball and penalty disputes.

Goal Line Technology (GLT)

All stadiums of this event have been equipped with goal line technology systems. Since 2016, the system has been used in UEFA's top clubs and national team competitions. Each goal is equipped with 7 cameras and the position of the ball in the goal area is tracked through control software. With the help of visual processing technology and software, the goal line technology system can send prompts to the referee's watch through vibration and visual signals within one second of the goal.