Referee 2.0 uses smartphone app for goals and cards

Referees can leave their pencil and notebook at home. All they need is a smartphone.

That seems like something for future referees, but according to The Next Web a Mexican referee has officiated a match with Referee Pro, “a smartphone app that will see the first ever football match kick off today with a professional match official using his mobile phone to record events, as well as dishing out yellow and red cards”.

The referee appointed for last Thursday’s match between América and Tecos was Miguel Pensamiento. The use of a the digital notebook in an official match is the ultimate test for producer Siine. They wrote on their website that “this will road-test the new tool in a live environment. Referee decisions will even be directly beamed to a Twitter account, which will allow instant verification of who scored or fouled. Referee Pro has been carefully developed with the aid of top referees in order to comply with official FIFA guidelines and their needs.”

The match ended in 10-7 victory for América, but I couldn’t find the live referee account of that match yet with tweets from the digital referee signal system.

Siine wants to be the new referee feature for professional and amateur users who want to track, share and gather fun stats on their games. A consumer based version will be released in the coming months for Android and iPhone devices.