Sony's Image-Assisted Refereeing Technology Evolves for More Immediate Offside Judgments in the World Cup

2026 World Cup Key News. Central News (Central News Mexico City 11th comprehensive foreign wire report) For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Sony Group of Japan has further upgraded its refereeing assistance technology. This event adopts new technology that can accurately capture the position of the soccer ball through cameras and automatically determine whether the ball is out of bounds. According to the Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun, in soccer rules, as long as any part of the ball is still pressing on the sideline, whether it is stuck to the ground or hanging in the air, the game is considered valid and continues. In the 2022 Qatar World Cup group stage, a subtle judgment that decided the outcome occurred in the match between Japan and Spain. At that time, Japanese player Makoto Hasegawa hooked the ball back from the sideline, and later Aoi Tanaka headed the ball into the net, allowing the team to take the lead. However, the controversy over 'whether the ball was out of bounds or not' at that time caused the game to be interrupted once. Even when watching the slow-motion replay, it was difficult to distinguish. In the end, relying on the image analysis system 'Hawk-Eye' under Sony (SONY) subsidiary for image-assisted refereeing (VAR), the judgment of 'the ball was not out of bounds, the game continues' was made. At that time, the Asahi Shimbun quoted the measurement results of Brazilian media, showing that the soccer ball only left 1.88 millimeters on the sideline. Therefore, this incident was called the 'Miracle of 1 Millimeter by Makoto' by the public. This precious one point became the key to Japan's victory over Spain. The report described that the 'Miracle of 1 Millimeter by Makoto' was realized precisely because Sony's camera group installed on the roof of the stadium and surrounding the entire field accurately captured the position of the ball and players. However, at that time, the referee team took 2.5 minutes from analyzing the image to making the final decision, making the fans at the scene and in front of the TV anxious. However, in this World Cup, the judgment time is expected to be significantly shortened. Because Sony's new system has added a function that, in the process of scoring, once the ball crosses the line, the basic artificial intelligence (AI) of 'Hawk-Eye' will automatically make a judgment and notify the referee team in real time. And as long as there is a possibility that the ball is out of bounds, the 'Hawk-Eye' system will immediately send a reminder to the image-assisted referee, and the referee team can immediately confirm the high-resolution image. Even in extreme cases where the ball is almost on the line, they can make a decision in an instant. In addition, in soccer rules, if a player 'ambushes' near the opponent's goal, it will constitute an 'offside' violation. Now, this penalty will also become faster and more accurate. The 'Hawk-Eye' system has added a function that, at the moment of passing, if the system judges that the receiving attacking player is in an offside position, it will directly convey it to the main referee on the field. In the previous World Cup, this information would only be conveyed to the VAR referee team in the image referee room. The new system, through reducing the communication time between the main referee on the field and the VAR referee team, is expected to make the game operate more smoothly.