[The Editors' Verdict] Will AI Referees Rewrite World Cup Economics?

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] "The referee was bribed." This conspiracy theory emerges every World Cup. Suspicious decisions amplify suspicions of illicit deals.

The assumption is that football powerhouses or host countries used funds to influence referee decisions. Those who have experienced unfair situations believe in conspiracy theories like a religion. This is why football causes conflicts between nations. In fact, wars have even broken out in Latin America over football issues.

At this point, the World Cup goes beyond just a mere ball game. The shadow of the World Cup, the world's largest sports festival. Is bribery possible? It is difficult to say definitively. However, biased decisions can occur depending on the referee's discretion. In this process, the 'logic of money' exploits loopholes.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The World Cup is a mega event involving astronomical amounts of money. The 2022 World Cup host country Qatar invested 296 trillion won. They poured money into bidding for the World Cup, stadium construction, and infrastructure expansion. The World Cup itself is a huge industry. The more the world gets excited about football, the more the value of broadcasting rights and advertising sales skyrockets. The impact on sales of TVs, electronic devices, sports goods, clothing, and food and beverages is also enormous.

The success of the World Cup is not only a concern for the host country. It is a common hope for FIFA and those involved in related industries. It is important that football powerhouses such as Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, Spain, and France remain until the end to sustain the excitement. Only then will football fans worldwide spend huge amounts of money on the World Cup, and the football-related industries will prosper.

The early elimination of favorites like Brazil or Spain dampens the excitement. To prevent such situations, is there room for referee discretion to intervene? Referees decide fouls, warnings, and expulsions. Offside and penalty kick decisions are crucial enough to directly affect the match outcome. The result of a match can change depending on the referee's choices.

At the Qatar World Cup, artificial intelligence (AI) referees were introduced. Twelve tracking cameras measure 29 body points of football players 50 times per second. They create data by accurately measuring joint movements. The inertial measurement unit (IMU) inside the official tournament ball 'Al Rihla' transmits the ball's position to the video review (VR) room 500 times per second.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

AI synthesizes the information and informs the referee of the results. This is the newly introduced Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) system for this tournament. It covers subtle differences difficult for the human eye to detect and unintentional referee errors with technological precision...

AI refereeing could be a turning point in rewriting the economics of the World Cup. It means preventing situations where someone's 'malicious interference' changes match results. Perhaps that is why the host country Qatar was eliminated in the round of 16 after only two matches. Among the 32 participating countries, the first to be eliminated was Qatar, which spent 296 trillion won. Could AI refereeing become a 'game changer' that reestablishes fairness in the World Cup?

What is clear is that an environment has been created where upsets, with football underdogs defeating powerhouses, occur more frequently. Perhaps such an environment will further amplify interest in the World Cup. Scenes where the weak defeat the strong have been the basic formula for sports excitement throughout history and across cultures.