'Al Rihla' Footballs Are the Most High-tech Ever Used in the World Cup as They Need To Be Charged Before the Games

The official 'Al Rihla' footballs being used for the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar are the most high-tech ever used in the international football competition as they not only need to be pumped full of air but also need to be charged.

A viral photo online showed the incredible detail behind the World Cup football as the fluro-colored balls are shown being charged like a smartphone from a power board before a game. Manufactured by Adidas, the football takes its name from the Arabic word for 'journey.' The ball is said to contain a sensor inside that measures real-time ball-tracking statistics.

High-Tech World Cup Footballs

Hosting the World Cup games comes with so much pressure. Over the years, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has introduced innovations to help officiate the games. One of these technologies is video-assisted refereeing (VAR) and now they introduced high-tech balls.

Futurism reported that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has the most high-tech football to date as it makes use of internal sensors that can track the position and velocity of the ball in real-time, and detect if it is touched.

But like many electronics, those sensors need to be charged before the game. The photo posted on Twitter shows the official balls getting charged like a smartphone device, which is truly bizarre as footballs usually only need air to be pumped in them and not electricity.

The ball is doing pretty well during the games so far and using a conjunction of the ultra-wideband and inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors only helped VAR to do its job better. The balls can track themselves as it moves 500 times per second, as per the accurate measurement of IMU sensors.

These measurements are linked to a camera system that tracks the ball, and 29 points of a player's body at less than 50 times per second. Tracking the ball and player's movements allows data to be placed with a real, recorded moment of action. The high technology used in this year's World Cup in Qatar has been branded by FIFA as "semi-automated offside technology."

High-Tech Footballs at Work

The sensor, manufactured by KINEXON, is about 14 grams in weight and is sensitive enough to detect impact at a rate of 50 frames per second. It has been put to test during a match between Portugal and Uruguay on Monday, November 28.

During the match, Portuguese forward Bruno Fernandes gracefully crossed the ball into the opponent's penalty area where his teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, eagerly leaped to head it into the net and score one for the team.

However, this is only as far as what most people saw during the match and not exactly what happened. Adidas confirmed that readings from the IMU sensor in the ball indicated that Ronaldo was not able to touch the ball as he merely served as a distraction for the goalkeeper. Due to that, the broadcaster credited the goal to Fernandes who had initially given it to Ronaldo.

The event demonstrated the capability of the high-tech ball, and FIFA authorities said that it is not the only thing it can do. Unparalleled amounts of data will become available soon, which upgrades how analysts would examine the game

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