Adidas Smart Football Helps Short-Sighted Refs December 17, 2007

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There have been more than one or two footie fan scuffles over botched referee and linesmen decisions, many of which have cost teams valuable points.

Adidas has been working on the problem for sometime, and today sees the launch of a new ‘smart’ football, the latest version of the technology it has been working on since 2003 and which it introduced first in 2005.

This is the Teamgeist II football and it’s a whole lot smarter – and more expensive - than your normal air-filled leather sac. This one is filled with technology and uses a magnetic field to track the location of the ball on the field at any given time. This information is fed to a computer and the data is sent directly to the ref. In other words, it can tell him if the ball was over the line or not, regardless of what the linesman thinks, and therefore prevent the odd mash up between the fans as well as lengthen his own lifespan.

“The purpose of the adidas intelligent ball and Goal Line Technology is to provide greater transparency during a match and to assist the referee in making quick decisions that can impact the outcome and quality of the game” said Hans-Peter Nuernberg, Senior Development Engineer, adidas Innovation Team. “We expect the system to perform very well during the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan and we will continue to refine the system so that it is 100% accurate.”

The ball was used first this weekend at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan and if the tests work out, this clever ball will be the ball of choice for the World Cup in 2010.-Martin Lynch

[Adidas]

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