Featured Image Credit: Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images/ITV
Topics: Euro 2024, Football, Sport, Technology, Cricket
Olivia Burke
Topics: Euro 2024, Football, Sport, Technology, Cricket
The Euros are now well underway and it seems that a summer of football fun is too - however, sports fans aren't too keen on a fancy new feature that's been introduced for the tournament.
To avoid making any rash and potentially devastating decisions while under pressure, referees are being aided by new technology which cricket fans will already likely know a lot about.
But if you don't keep tabs on the game with the bat and ball, listen up while we debrief you on the snickometer.
Also known as 'snicko', this handy bit of kit is commonly used in cricket to determine whether the ball edged the bat or not.
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It shows a frame-by-frame replay of the ball flying through the air, alongside a waveform which provides a visual of the soundwave which an extremely sensitive microphone near the stumps has picked up on.
This means it is speedier and more accurate for referees to make decisions. So it's only right that football gets a go of it too, isn't it?
But for the beautiful game, things have been tweaked a little.
A motion-sensing microchip is placed inside the ball which gathers information on the game, essentially.
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It churns out a 'touch detection' graphic which refs can use to help make better decisions on potential handballs and players being offside - and viewers get to see these results too, when it involves a big call at any Euros match.
The microchip inside of the balls can incredibly track every touch at a rate of 500 times a second. Impressive.
But following Belgium's defeat against Slovakia earlier today (17 June), football fans don't seem too happy about the introduction of the snickometer.
Romelu Lukaku had two goals ruled out by VAR during the match - and the one in the 86th minute which was disallowed has angered fans.
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After referring to the snickometer technology, the referee ruled that Luis Openda had committed a handball offence before the goal - so those who are Belgium supporters or had a bet on aren't very happy.
Taking to social media, sports fans shared their frustrations.
One said: "A snickometer to assist the VAR officials?" as another wrote: "Is that the first goal ever disallowed by snicko?"
And a third chimed in: "Handball snicko?! Sorry, what?"
If you cast your mind back to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, you may remember that similar technology was used then too.
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Cristiano Ronaldo believed he had got a faint touch on the ball which was booted across by Bruno Fernandes during a clash against Uruguay in the group stages, but Adidas' Connected Ball Technology said different.
A statement from FIFA at the time explained: "In the match between Portugal and Uruguay, using the Connected Ball Technology housed in adidas's Al Rihla Official Match Ball, we are able to definitively show no contact on the ball from Cristiano Ronaldo for the opening goal in the game.
"No external force on the ball could be measured as shown by the lack of 'heartbeat' in our measurements. The 500Hz IMU sensor inside the ball allows us to be highly accurate in our analysis."
Fernandes got the glory in the end, so I can imagine Ronaldo isn't a massive fan of this mod con either.