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A VAR offside check on your own footage

Pause on the moment the ball is played, pick the last defender and the attacker, and SeeKick draws both lines on the video, measures the gap in metres and rebuilds the two players in 3D. It says OFFSIDE or ONSIDE only when the gap is bigger than its own error, and TOO CLOSE TO CALL when it is not.

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Answer: OFFSIDE, ONSIDE, or TOO CLOSE TO CALL, with the margin in metres
Error band: Camera, body and timing errors, added up and printed with every call
3D: The two players rebuilt as 3D bodies from the paused frame, with a wall on the line
Keys: Press O, click the defender, click the attacker

01How a check works

Two clicks, one call

The check runs on the paused frame of your own match video, in the same viewer you watch the match in.

Pause on the pass
Step frame by frame to the moment the ball is played. Then press O, or the flag on the tool strip.
Pick the last defender
Click the defender who holds the line. If a deeper defender is on screen, the check names him rather than swapping him in behind your back.
Pick the attacker
Click the player you are checking. Or let SeeKick pick both: the most advanced attacker against the second-last defender.
Read the call
Both lines appear on the video, with the gap in metres and the error band. The call stays hidden until you confirm the line is where you meant it.
Turn it in 3D
One click rebuilds the two players as 3D bodies and flies the camera in to look along the line.

The 3D view

The broadcast offside replay, for your match

The scene turns blue and quiet, a translucent wall stands on the offside line, and the camera flies in high from the onside half to look through it. Only the two players you picked are drawn.

The two players rebuilt as full 3D bodies by an AI model (Meta's SAM 3D Body) from the paused frame
Each body stands where the tracking placed him, at the size the video shows, in his shirt colour as read from the frame
Camera angles: VAR, along the line, behind, above and wide
The call, the margin and the band printed on the banner

Building the two bodies takes about 20 seconds. Until they arrive the view shows a loading bar, never a stand-in figure.

Fig. 1. An illustration of the 3D view, drawn for this page with example values: the defender on the line in white, the attacker just beyond it in orange. It is not a screenshot. In the app the two bodies are the AI model's, built from the frame.

02Three answers

It says when it is too close to call

A line drawn from one camera has an error, and so does a player's position. SeeKick adds those errors up for every check and only gives a call when the gap is bigger than the error.

Offside
The attacker's front-most part is beyond the line by more than the error band.
Too close to call
The gap is inside the error band. The check will not pretend to settle it.
Onside
The attacker is level with the line or behind it by more than the error band, or he is in his own half or behind the ball.

Fig. 2. Where each answer falls. The band is worked out for every check, not fixed: it is narrower on a sharp, zoomed-in frame and wider on a distant one.

03The error band

Where the error comes from

Every part of the band is listed under the call, so you can see why it is as wide as it is.

Part	What it is
Camera	How far the line can be off on the picture, turned into metres at each player. Small where the camera is locked to the painted pitch lines; about 2 m where it is not, and the panel says so.
Body	Where each player's front-most part really is. From a body pose read for the two players (head, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles, never the arms) it is a few centimetres plus the depth of the body; without a pose, 0.35 m per player is assumed from the box around him.
Timing	How far the two players close on each other in one frame of video, at the speed they are running.
Total	The three, added in quadrature. Typically about half a metre on a 4K broadcast frame from the boxes, and about a quarter of a metre with the body pose.

So the check settles clear cases. It does not settle centimetres, and it says so instead of guessing.

04The details

Who is the last defender, and which way is goal

The goalkeeper. Detectors often miss a goalkeeper, and the line is then drawn at him. SeeKick treats a player as the keeper when the detector says so, when the names mark him as the keeper, or, with neither on screen, when a defender stands alone in his own goal area, and it says which. One keeper per half; "he's the keeper" and "not the keeper" correct it in a click.

The attacking direction. Taken from the match's own measured direction for that half. Where that is not known, the check makes a guess from where the teams stand, labels it as a guess and gives you a button to flip it.

A keeper off screen. If no keeper is in the picture he is assumed to be behind, and the panel says that too.

Nothing is written. A check changes nothing in the match: no data, no names, no drawings.

05Limits

What it does not do

A position, not an offence
It tells you whether the attacker stood in an offside position on that frame. Whether that is the frame the ball was played, and whether he was involved in play, is your call.
Only what is on screen
A defender out of shot could hold the line further back. Only the players in the picture count, and the panel reminds you.
Not centimetres
The band is usually tens of centimetres. Inside it the answer is "too close to call".
Needs the pitch lines
The tightest band needs a frame where the camera is locked to the painted lines. Elsewhere the camera is approximate and the band is wider; the panel says which.
Not on wide panoramic cameras yet
A fixed stitched panorama cannot be described by one ordinary camera, so the 3D bodies cannot be placed on it. The 2D lines still work.
Not official
It is an analysis tool for coaches and analysts, not a match official's system.

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A VAR offside check on your own footage

Two clicks, one call

Pause on the pass

Pick the last defender

Pick the attacker

Read the call

Turn it in 3D

The broadcast offside replay, for your match

It says when it is too close to call

Where the error comes from

Who is the last defender, and which way is goal

What it does not do

A position, not an offence

Only what is on screen

Not centimetres

Needs the pitch lines

Not on wide panoramic cameras yet

Not official

Everything else in the box

Match viewer

Player names

Running data

Drawing and tactics

Studio and reels

Match report and AI

Opposition analysis

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Send us your next match.