Semi-automated offside technology is just MLS’s latest attempt to outsource competence rather than build a world-class refereeing pipeline. The league has once again chosen a shiny gadget over the hard, boring work of developing officials who can read the game, manage personalities, and make split-second calls without a digital crutch. This isn’t about accuracy—it’s about avoiding accountability.
Consider what semi-automation actually masks. When a play like Cucho Hernández’s disallowed goal against LAFC last season took five minutes to sort out, the problem wasn’t the offside line—it was the center referee’s inability to trust his own eyes and the assistant’s reluctance to flag in real time. MLS now wants to replace that human indecision with a black box that spits out a 3D skeleton. But ask any fan at Lower.com Field: the wait for the algorithm to decide whether a toe was a millimeter past Christian Benteke’s hip killed the emotional pulse of the match. Meanwhile, the Canadian crew led by Micheal Barwegen at the World Cup showed that well-trained referees using semi-automation as a backup, not a crutch, can deliver quick, decisive results. The difference? FIFA invested years in referee education; MLS invests in press releases.
The deeper implication is damaging: by leaning on technology to adjudicate the most basic violation, the league absolves itself of the responsibility to fix its broken referee development system. We still see the same lapses—missed handballs, inconsistent yellow cards, and the farce of a single official trying to keep up with a transition counter from Riqui Puig to Dejan Joveljić. Instead of hiring full-time, year-round refs, paying them six-figure salaries, and putting them through game-film review with former pros, MLS buys a license from a tech vendor. That’s choosing optics over outcomes. The union won’t improve because the league doesn’t want to pay for a human solution; it wants to pay for a software fix.
Here is the bold prediction: within two seasons, a semi-automated offside call will directly decide an MLS Cup final, triggering a firestorm of controversy because the system’s flawed calibration will call a shoulder offside that no honest assistant would have flagged—and the referees, stripped of authority, will have no answer. At that moment, MLS will either double down on tech or finally admit that the best offside trap is a properly trained official who knows when to let the game breathe. I’m betting on more outsourcing.