Chelsea's game against Dinamo Zagreb will be partly officiated by robots after new semi-automated VAR additions were implemented into the Champions League.
The decision, which was announced in July, will attempt to stop some of the controversy over the video assistant, and will be used in competitive action in the wake of torrid criticism that VAR has had following high-profile mistakes in the Premier League at the weekend.
Chelsea themselves were involved in one such incident in their 2-1 win over West Ham, and whilst the new Champions League VAR won't be able to change more subjective decisions like Jared Bowen's alleged foul on Edouard Mendy, it will be able to quickly decipher offside calls that have previously taken time away from matches and stunted the atmosphere for celebrating fans.
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The change, which will also be in evidence at this winter's World Cup in Qatar, will use between 10 and 12 cameras collecting 29 data points per player 50 times each second in order to recreate every movement accurately on a system. The ball will also send 500 signals per second to track its own progress around the pitch.
This should, in theory, mean that decisions will be made by the semi-automated robot system first, then being relayed to the human VAR assistant to pass on a message to the on-field official.
Whereas the previous VAR system has averaged 70 seconds per decision, largely due to the human error involved in the infamous lines being drawn and moved across the pitch, early tests have given a much improved 25 second wait time for the robot assisted offside assistant.
This doesn't mean that the VAR assistant won't be involved in the calls because decisions are still needed to be made regarding interferences in play and which player the ball has come off last. This system will at least speed up the process as if someone is offside, that information will be readily available almost immediately.
Chelsea themselves have also previously experienced the semi-automated official, with the system in place for their Club World Cup campaign last winter.
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