No ‘Hawkeye’ next season

The league yes it will semi-auto offside the 2023-2024 season. Employers are committed to this technology, which also has a huge impact on the game, as shown week after week. It is already used in competitions organized by UEFA such as the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the last FIFA Club World Cup and in Qatar. In Spain it was used in the Spanish Super Cup in January and in the last Copa del Rey.

This system, like the one we already have in MD, allows us to improve both accuracy and speed in decision making. A three-dimensional technology that, both in the stadium and at home, allows you to see the exact position of the player. It is called ‘semi-automatic’ because this information is sent to the VOR room and the VAR and the AVAR have to give a definite ok.

It remains to be seen who will be the provider of this technology, as the contract with the current provider, Hawk Eye, expires on June 30. For now the contest launched by the RFEF on March 22 is paralyzed due to a complaint from Mediapro.

Debate after the controversial goal in Cornellà

What is definitely not next season is ‘goal technology’ or also known as ‘hawk’s eye’. The debate arose again after what happened last Wednesday in Espanyol-Atletico de Madrid. It should start by saying that Hawk Eye also has this technology and that it is applied in UEFA club competitions or the Premier League. The system fails, it is infallible. Without going further, last February in the match between Fiorentina-Braga in the Conference League, it was evident.

But it is also worth knowing that in order to apply it to our League, it is necessary to have a FIFA license worth more than 2 million euros for the 380 games that the Spanish First Division has every season. In addition, in case of encounter, the Professional Soccer League must be fully assumed. This is a dilemma that has been raised in our country some time before the implementation of VAR.

Even then the employers decided not to make this cost because they had a program like Mediacoach, which has the ability to apply this technology, but the approval of FIFA indicates the cost will exceed 3 million euros.

In addition, the experience of all these seasons, including the current one with the recent event in Cornellà, has shown that this technology is hardly used and does not justify its high investment. Because its cost will double if this technology is also to be implemented in the Second Division. Of the 420 games that make up the competition. This means an almost doubling of costs, which exceed 4 million euros. To all this, we must add the costs obtained from adapting the stadiums to this technology: 14 cameras required for its proper use.

In Spain there is only one precedent for the use of this technology. It was in the Spanish Super Cup held in 2020 in Saudi Arabia. On that occasion, the RFEF used him in all three games in support of Hawk Eye, in his capacity as Spain’s new VAR provider at the time. In fact, the RFEF manages all the costs of its use. However, since then he never used it again.