Although Pierluigi Collina retired from refereeing more than 20 years ago, he remains the only match official most fans can choose from the lineup. On the eve of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, he is officiating the biggest tournament in FIFA history and conducting a very special call.
When something controversial happens, FIFA president Gianni Infantino is usually the first to be questioned. “Usually he says, ‘What was that?’ I have to answer him,” Corinna said, describing a control room in Miami with interconnected screens.
At the Qatar tournament four years ago, the two watched all 64 games together. That won’t be possible this time as the tournament will be held in three countries.
Colina disagrees that the use of VAR diminishes the excitement of scoring a goal. “The players react immediately and celebrate. Then there’s a check and there’s a moment of suspense. Then, finally, when the goal is confirmed, there’s a second celebration,” he says. He would rather wait for the right decision than have the wrong one debated for decades, as was the case in the 1966 final.
FIFA World Cup: From the finish line to your 3D avatar
Collina said goal-line technology was introduced to Brazilian soccer in 2014 for a simple reason: no one could tell if the ball had crossed the line.
The case for offside decisions was different; even though the accuracy was the same, the audience could not trust the lines drawn by humans. The solution came in the form of an automated offside system using Lenovo technology that scans more than 1,200 players to create 3D player avatars.
VAR uses Hawk-Eye Innovations on Lenovo ThinkStation computers, but Lenovo’s artificial intelligence also runs on Referee View, a stabilized video from body cameras used in F1 races.
Currently, referees prepare using Football AI Pro, a Lenovo-FIFA system that processes more than 2,000 metrics for each match. But it’s clear that Collina has limits. Physical contact, pushing, pulling, tugging on shirts, etc. still requires human judgment and cannot be replaced by algorithms. “The misconception is that because we have technology, we can provide answers to everything,” he says.
As Spain and Argentina prepare to settle the tournament on the pitch, Colina’s ruling is a reminder that even with FIFA’s most advanced systems, final decisions are still left in the hands of humans.
