Adidas Smart football takes part in Euros 2024

Of course, we’ve had a few smart sporting elements on Gadget Master –  smart golf club, smart tennis raquet, smart cricket ball and smart basketball net – so it’s only right to cover the smart football being used in Euro 2024, which can track the slightest deviations in movement?

(Full disclosure, we’ve also had a data-gathering football, before, but that was back in the relative stone age of 2016 (pah!) – and it was for training purposes only, not the full heat of actual live games!)

Smart football

According to Adidas, a new Suspension System in the centre of the ball – the “Fussballiebe” (love of football, don’t you know) – holds its Connected Ball element, to provide insights into its movement. This is in order to contribute to the VAR (video assistant refereeing) decision-making process.

Specifically, it features a 500Hz IMU (inertial measurement unit), and involves a combination of tracking sensors (gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers, for example) and MEMS that work to measure various parameters, tracking the information 500 times per second.

For example, this information includes detecting slight deviations to a ball’s flight path caused by a deflection when a player has touched the ball (which is important for arbitrating offside* decisions).

The IMU is made by Kinexon Sports and you can read more about its use of an IMU here, including in sports wearables.

For its part, Adidas lifted the veil on its magic, to small degree, back in 2022. The sports equipment manufacturer explained:

“This new technology developed in close collaboration with FIFA and KINEXON, leaders in state-of-the-art sensor network and edge computing, enables the Video Match Officials to review live data for the first time by automatically providing very accurate information, 500 times per second, on when a player has touched the ball. It will help inform offside situations as well as assist in detecting unclear touches thereby ultimately improving the quality and speed of VAR decision-making process.

“The connected ball technology has been rigorously and robustly tested with a number of professional and grassroots football clubs around the world (including blind testing), namely at the FIFA Arab Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup 2021 in Abu Dhabi, with no perceived change to performance.”

* No, I don’t really understand how offside works anymore, in practice, with VAR getting involved in the “attacking phase” of play only, despite Linespersons being told not to raise flags to stop play prematurely. Oooph…

Image: UEFA

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