Digital yellow, red cards in football? Uruguay tests electronic device in bid to modernise refereeing

The system is designed to simplify the officials’ administrative work by recording disciplinary decisions digitally. | Photo Credit: AUFTV/ YouTube Screengrab

A referee used a phone-sized electronic device to book players during a Copa Uruguay match between Nacional and Rentistas earlier this week.

Match official Eduardo Varela tested the device during the game on Thursday, which replaced the familiar ​flash of a yellow card with a digital screen, in a trial aimed at ‌modernising one of football’s oldest rituals.

Varela noted that the device was comfortable to use but still lacked the theatrics and drama of a traditional card. “You ‌lose a little of the magic of the quick card, but ​I think it is something that will help us a lot, especially with the administrative side,” he said.

The system is designed to simplify the officials’ administrative work by recording disciplinary decisions digitally.

“We are looking to bring technology to the only thing in football that ‌is still analogue,” said Mauro Sacco, director of REFe, the company behind the project, in an interview with Uruguayan radio ‌ El Espectador Deportes on Friday.

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The idea came about more than three years ago when REFe directors Sacco and Diego de la Pena watched a match played in the rain, seeing the officials book players and then put that information into digital systems.

The new device records bookings with timestamps, with developers aiming ​to streamline the submission of ‌official records to the Uruguayan Football Association’s COMET platform.

However, the tests of the new system exposed some problems, one of which was visibility. Sunlight made the screen hard to see, with fans and television viewers struggling to make out the decisions.

“It’s a project with room for improvement. It looked much better live than it did on TV. The challenge we face now is to improve it for the whole audience,” De la Pena said, adding, “The yellow card has to be yellow, the red card has to be red, and it has to be visible ‌to people on the ground and on television.”

REFe is hoping to refine the technology and see it adopted by the South ​American governing body CONMEBOL and the world body FIFA.