Professional umpiring – part tech and part human
It is the sixth chukker of the semi finals of the US Open Polo Championship and a call is made by the umpires to have a throw-in due to a case of offsetting fouls at the end of the fifth. It is a close call in a not so close game – Coca Cola are trailing 14-4 at the hands of Pilot.
But every play – and every whistle on the play – is important, scrutinized with the aid of extensive technology. While the teams were packing up and horse trailers were departing for the barn, this one was being discussed and reviewed by the officiating team of USPA umpires Julian Appleby, Jamie Mirikitani, third man Hector Galindo and IRO [Instant Replay Official] Guillermo Villanueva in their post-match debrief.
Technology now used by USPA Umpires LLC, under the guidance of Executive Director, Fergus Gould has changed the sport. Not long ago, players umpired each other and the third man had nothing but his eyesight to go on if needed to make a decision from the sidelines. Now there is a drone to provide close up footage. “We’re trying to take advantage of the technology that’s available over the last few years,” Fergus said. “The cost has come down for the capabilities that we have.”
At the center of the advancements is a more sophisticated replay system – Vogo, a server that all of the feeds go into and can be manipulated for review, and a back up system and a tagging system, Sports Code.
“When I used to umpire we had the IRO not even on property,” said Fergus. “It was hard because we didn’t have any context of the game and were just looking at it on a small screen in a lot of cases…and we had to make a decision pretty quickly. We weren’t able to communicate directly with the umpires.”
Fast forward to 2024 and the introduction of the fieldside technology hub in the shape of a dedicated and highly equipped USPA Umpires van. “Now if there’s a challenge or something that’s a difficult call, we’ll bring the umpires in to show them what we’re seeing, what the IRO is seeing and what they’re basing their decision on so they can go back and tell the players exactly what they saw,” said Fergus.
Challenges to calls are limited in a match to one per half, per team and the IRO has the final say. Gone are the days of regular outbursts of appealing and complaining from players feeling wronged by a penalty – the camera in the drone does not lie. Add to that the fact that the younger generation of players have only ever experienced this level of professional umpiring and are consequently inclined to recognize the authority behind the calls.
“There’s a lot less arguing. There’s been a few challenges. I think we’ve overturned maybe five or six out of about 25 challenges or so,” said Fergus, referring to the high goal season in Wellington. “It’s fifteen percent – around that mark. If it was more than that, then we probably have a problem with getting it wrong. If it’s less than that, then we’d probably say we’re not spending the time to look at them and not overturning any, which would be a problem as well.”
Looking to the future, further advances in officiating may come through AI. Goal line technology is ‘doable’ now – but the cost is prohibitive. “It’s 12 cameras per field and probably $270,000 – and then you’ve got to move it so it’s not realistic at the moment,” Fergus said. “It might get cheaper with AI – as machine learning gets better at projecting the path of the ball you’re not going to need so many cameras to verify.”
While technology helps to streamline decision making it also provides a bigger picture for discussion – and that is where the human element of umpiring comes into play. “The management of the game, of the players, of understanding the situation, of the tournament, of the chukker – we used to look at things in a very myopic way where it was just, is this a foul yes or no?” said Fergus.
“It didn’t allow for any interpretation of the situation in the game and how the game has been played. Something that is a foul in one game might not necessarily be a foul in another game where it’s been open and it’s a small thing. Sometimes you have to call those, particularly earlier in the game, but that human element to it – and the management of the players – is something that AI is never going to replace.”
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