The technological future of refereeing continues to develop at Sevilla FC’s facilities.

Football is facing a crucial stage for its future. Technological advancements have long been opening up new horizons in both the sports management of clubs and in such crucial aspects as refereeing. FIFA, the world’s governing body in football, has been pursuing a tool for some time that simplifies and automates decision-making, thus helping to make this sport as fair as possible. The international body has found the perfect allies in the company Kinexon and Sevilla FC to develop the desired technologies.

If last summer the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán served as a testing ground for the semi-automatic offside system, in recent weeks, the Ciudad Deportiva José Ramón Cisneros Palacios has been the stage for new tests with geolocation-chipped balls. This technology allows for a detailed analysis of all possible data related to a footballer and the ball, which will help automate decisions such as offside or last-player situations, two of the most controversial and challenging from a human perspective. Technologies like this smart ball, coupled with intelligent image and data capture systems, assist in the day-to-day internal management of a club, allowing for the analysis of individual players as well as the more tactical aspects of the game.

Sevilla FC, through its Data and R&D&I departments and its Innovation Center, is the European club leading technological development, as demonstrated by the creation of its own tools for resource optimization in most of its areas. Even one of them, Transfer Tracker, aimed at claiming economic rights through the solidarity mechanism – for players developed in its academy – has already been commercialized by LaLiga for the rest of the clubs worldwide. Hence, it is one of the few clubs, if not the only one, that possesses the necessary infrastructure – scientific personnel, equipment, facilities, experience, etc. – to implement all the advancements being designed.