Premier League to introduce new technology as of later this month after successful trials in FA Cup

The Premier League have finally set a date for when Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) will be implemented across the board in the Premier League.

We will never understand why it has taken the 'best league in the world' so long to adopt this technology which has already proven to be a success in international competition.

The SAOT was used during the last World Cup and worked brilliantly, and while the Premier League did promise that it would look to adopt the technology during this season, it as taken until there is only around a month left of the campaign to come in.

SAOT was recently trialled in the FA Cup where it worked very well and finally, the Premier League is ready to roll it out across the league.

Premier League

The Premier League will finally adopt Semi-Automated Offside Technology

After the technology was used in the World Cup it was also adopted by UEFA for its European competitions, but still, the Premier League needed more proof of concept.

The technology will operate alongside VAR with the aim of speeding up offside decisions, which it does by creating a 3D image showing with pinpoint accuracy whether a player is offside without the need for human intervention and drawing lines on a still frame.

Newcastle have already been on the receiving end of a SAOT call this season with the technology ruling out a last-minute Fabian Schar equaliser which eventually saw the Magpies dumped out of the FA Cup.

Bringing in this technology mid-season is an odd move

Newcastle's next two games will go ahead without SAOT in place, but it is set to go live from the weekend of 12th April.

That weekend Newcastle host Manchester United at St James' Park on Sunday 13th of April, live on Sky Sports and will remain in use for the remainder of the season.

It still baffles me how they can make such big changes to the game mid-season. Like, how many points have been won/lost this season because this technology wasn't in use only for it to come into effect later on and change how games are officiated?

But, I give up trying to get my head around how the Premier League works. They just do what they want.