Levi Rothermund
AWS outage left semi-automated offside tech offline for first half at West Ham
The Premier League’s semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) was not available for the opening 45 minutes of Brentford‘s 2-0 win at West Ham because of a widespread Amazon Web Services outage.
The match began without the system in operation. The league’s Match Centre warned supporters the VAR team would revert to the traditional virtual offside lines used in earlier seasons, and that SAOT would be brought in if it became available.
“Due to the impact of today’s global AWS outage, this evening’s match will begin without the use of semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). If required, the VAR will use virtual offside lines, as in previous seasons, to determine an offside decision. If SAOT becomes available during the game, it will be implemented when appropriate.”
Late in first-half stoppage time Brentford thought they had a second goal through Igor Thiago. The effort was eventually ruled out for offside.
Because SAOT was unavailable the check took noticeably longer than usual. The video assistant referee had to draw lines manually as in seasons past. The offside decision was still correct, but the process lacked the speed made possible by automation.
Before the second half began the Premier League confirmed the system was back online and in use for the remainder of the fixture.
“SAOT is now in operation for this fixture”
In short: the AWS outage forced a temporary return to manual offside checks, lengthening some reviews, but did not change the outcome of key decisions during the game.