Scottish football fail goes viral after AI camera misses award-winning club's goal

Stenhousemuir won an award for using AI cameras but the technology let down fans at the weekend.

Bookmark
Share
Comments

Lauren Gilmour, PA Scotland

15:26, 18 SEP 2023
Updated15:36, 18 SEP 2023

Video Loading

A Scottish football fail has gone viral after the cameras broadcasting the game focused on a goalie's celebrations at the wrong end of the pitch as a goal was scored at the other.

Stenhousemuir won a Digital Transformation Award for the use of AI cameras to stream games to fans. But the technology was to blame for viewers missing the club's fifth goal in their 5-0 win over Stranraer at the weekend.

The main camera broadcasting the League Two clash panned to Stenny goalkeeper Darren Jamieson just as midfielder Adam Brown swept the ball into the net for his second of the game.

The goal was picked up by a second camera in the stadium, which produces less clear footage. But it was the clip of the goal not being shown which was included in the club's official highlight reel on YouTube.

The clip was then shared on Twitter, where it was watched over 90,000 times, leaving viewers in stitches. One said, "Excellent celebration by the goalie", while another added: "Just give them the Puskas award now".

Another posted, "When I was in Brunei I bought a league one match with the auto camera, spent 90 mins watching seagulls flying around and missed all 4 goals".

The camera captured the action right up until Adam Brown added the fifth goal. (Image: Warriors TV.)

And another said: "Happened at my lads game a month or so ago was meant to be filming the game but the camera followed a group of boys kicking a ball about behind the pitch".

In 2021, Stenhousemuir was crowned Digitally Transformed Business of the Year, after generating a fortune in revenue through live-stream sales thanks to the technology.

When Covid forced football behind closed doors, the clubs installed the cameras to counteract the loss in revenue from not having fans in the stadium. As well as capturing the action, the system packages the coverage into a live stream for fans to watch online.

Stenhousemuir Chairman Iain McMenemy hailed the development at the time. And the club defended the technology after Saturday's gaffe. A Stenhousemuir FC spokesperson said: "Whilst no system is perfect, the Pixellot automated system requires minimal human resource which allows us to stream more content than most other clubs at this level in the SPFL.

"This includes all our men's and women's home games, as well as a significant number of our community team matches and events. A club like Stenhousemuir, which has around 1,000 community participants taking part in football activity each week, could not commit to filming as much content as we do without utilising the Pixellot technology."

Andy Smith, chair of fans group the Scottish Football Supporters' Association, said: "It’s ‘Bleeding edge’ technology and while it may be the future it’s not quite good enough for the present.

The goal was picked up by a poorer quality camera within the stadium. (Image: Warriors TV.)

"But Stenny are a great community club and will look after their fans. It’s up there with Gerry McNee missing the first goal in an Old Firm match and the fans serenaded him with "Gerry Gerry what’s the score".

The incident Andy referred to was in 1995, when David Robertson scored for Rangers against Celtic. The goal was chopped off for offside by the officials on the day.

But McNee, who was commentating on the match, was too busy watching replays of the goal and was unaware it had been discounted. It took around five minutes for him to realise his mistake and update viewers on the correct score.