Euro 2024: how the ball with sensors works and why it is being decisive in the results of the matches

The sensors that the balls have Euro 2024 They are taking arbitration reviews to a new level.

This was seen for the first time last Tuesday, in Belgium’s match against Slovakia, in which the Belgians scored an agonizing goal for a 1-1 draw around the 90th minute.

After the celebration of Romelu Lukaku,the VAR (video assistant referee) and the new sensor technology on the ball came into play.

Before the striker scored, his teammate Loïs Openda had touched the ball with her hand in a play that in other times would have gone unnoticed.

The referee received an alert that the ball’s sensors had detected that it was touched illegally by Openda, so the goal was finally disallowed. The television showed a small graph indicating the vibration of the ball when touched by the hand.

Portugal also had a goal disallowed in the match they ended up winning 2-1 against the Czech Republic, in this case for an offside which was detected with the same sensor technology.

Similarly, this Wednesday Switzerland had scored a goal that gave them the victory against Scotland, but an offside was detected thanks to the ball, so it was disallowed.

But how does it work?

Sensors that record everything

The “Fussballliebe”, the Adidas brand ball used at Euro 2024 in Germany, uses technology based on sensors that record and send up to 500 data per second to the VAR referees.

Inside the ball there is 20 pieces of technology that record each force exerted on the ball by the touch of footballers, not only with the foot or head, but also with other parts of the body.

“Connected ball technology can help referees with video at identify each individual touch on the ballreducing the time spent resolving incidents of hand touches and penalties,” UEFA explained when announcing the implementation of the sensors last December.

This is combined with a system based on artificial intelligence that detects, through 10 cameras distributed throughout the stadium the movements of each player.

These data are available to the referees in the VAR booth.

The technology “Connected Ball”as UEFA calls it, is also part of the semi-automated offside system (SAOT).

This allows the VAR to determine the off-side by way of much more precise and faster through cameras that detect “29 different body points of the player”, immediately identifying the point of contact of the player with the ball.

So, we no longer depend on the eye of the referee or from television footage to know when a ball was hit and in what position the person who received it was in.

The SAOT had already been implemented in the Champions League in 2022, but in Euro 2024 it is supported for the first time with the “Connected Ball”.

Other technological systems, such as the one that determines whether a ball crossed the goal line, are also being implemented in Germany.

By reviewing a play, such as a goal, they can determine who touched the ball and when.