How the World Cup changed the Laws of Football

Israeli football referee Sapir Berman left gestures with the whistle during the Israeli Premier League match between Hapoel Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem at Samy Ofer Stadium in Israel's northern Mediterranean coastal city of Haifa on May 3, 2021. PHOTO AFP The founders of association football envisaged a game without a referee when they drafted the first Laws of the Game in 1863, so what they made of the advanced technology that will assist decision making at this year's World Cup is anyone's guess.

From the time when a whistle was introduced to the semi-automated offside technology that will assist the Video Assistant Referee in Qatar, using cameras in the stadium and a chip in the ball, the officiating of the game has remained the same, although at no more a pace than in the past 15 years.

When the first laws were drawn up, there was no provision for a referee.

There was an assumption that a gentleman would never commit a foul. A history of the Laws of the Game published by FIFA said the penalty, or as it was originally called ''the kick of death', was introduced as one of a number of dramatic changes in 1891.

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Penalties had to be awarded by someone and the referee was allowed onto the field of play following a proposal from the Irish Association. The dispute between the two team captains was originally settled by the two team captains, but as the stakes grew, so did the number of complaints. The referee would gain two assistants, or linesmen, to help his decision making over the decades that followed, but it was only after the advent of television coverage of the sport and closer to the scrutiny of officiating that a rapid evolution of refereeing aids was introduced.

England's Premier League was the first to work on goal line technology, but their initial efforts at implementing it were rejected by the International Football Association Board, who are the custodians of the Laws.

This changed after Frank Lampard's effort crossing the line for England against Germany but not being awarded as a goal in a major refereeing blunder at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The technology was introduced in 2013 based on the concept of Hawk-Eye and is the brainchild of Professor Paul Hawkins, who devised a way of using specially placed cameras to improve accuracy.

It changed the attitudes about the use of technology in football, which had fallen significantly behind advances in eliminating mistakes in most major sports.

The first discussion about Video Assistant Referees took place in late 2014 and it was introduced now in 50 major tournaments and in 50 different countries by the time of the World Cup in Russia four years later.

FIFA have been striving to catch up quickly and now they have their own department of Football Technology Innovation''.

Semi-automated offside technology is the latest addition to the refereeing tool kit, as margins for error decrease and less.