FootballOne

How it fits together

FootballOne, part by part

Scroll or tap a part. Press “See the 3D CAD design” to watch the model, built from our CAD, light each part up and show how it connects.

See the 3D CAD designShow the concept

Real-time 3D render · drag to rotate · final design may varySwipe sideways to rotate

1. 01

   The whole FootballOne

   The goal is the product and its own referee: a goal-line camera in each post, an AI camera and a Pi Zero 2 W at each post top, light bands and a horn in every post, and a signed log decide goals, goal kicks, corners and the penalty keeper rule from inside the goal frame.

2. 02Brain

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W at the top of the home left post

   The brain: it runs the footballone-goal program

3. 

   03

   AI camera at the top of each post

   Looks out over the goal mouth and the penalty area from each post top: shots, saves, headers, the keeper holding the ball, the penalty kick and the last touch; the right post computer sends its view to the brain over a USB lead through the crossbar

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W at the top of the home left post · CSI-2 ribbon cable · Ball, player and keeper positions (the model runs on the sensor)

4. 04

   Goal-line camera in each post

   Looks along the goal line from the inside face of each post to the far post and on 16.5 m beyond it: whole ball over the line (goal, goal kick or corner) and the keeper's feet at a penalty

   XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense · SPI wire inside the post · Line-crossing events with frame times and a 2 s clip

5. 05

   Call lights and horn in every post

   Shows every call to the players on the goal itself: green goal, white goal kick, amber corner or retake, blue unsure, with the horn

   NeoPixel Sticks · One LED data line and a PWM line from each post's Pi · Call colours and tones

6. 06

   Secure element and tamper switches

   Signs every call with its clip and sensor times in an append-only log; the tamper switch under each crossbar joint marks the log if the frame is opened

   ATECC608 · I2C (secure element) and a GPIO line (tamper switch) · Signatures and tamper events

7. 07

   Crossbar radio and motion sensor

   Feels crossbar and post hits and any tilt of the goal; links the goal to the referee's wrist and to the other goal over BLE long range (Coded PHY, about 100 m) so both goals share one match clock and score

   XIAO nRF52840 Sense · UART wire through the crossbar · Woodwork hits, tilt alarm, wrist-unit and away-goal messages

8. 08

   Cells and charger in each post foot

   Four 18650 cells and a 5 V boost low in each post; one cell for the crossbar radio

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W at the top of the home left post · 5 V lead inside the post · Power for a tournament day

9. 

   09

   Referee wrist unit (the one detachable part)

   Optional: buzzes the referee with each call and the keeper count, keeps the match clock and sin bins; no call needs it. Docks in the back of the home left post

   XIAO ESP32-C3 · BLE radio · Keys, match clock, sin bins and buzzes

10. 10

    All connected

    8 key parts, one program, and your phone

Our circuit board · rev A-0

One board of our own inside FootballOne

Every chip on one board we design, shaped to fit: the processor, cameras and sensors, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, lights, sound and power. No plugs, ribbons or adapters. It is checked in our CAD against every part around it, and it arrives from the maker ready to run our software from a microSD card. Turn the model, or pick a part below to see where it sits.

Demo · 6 real-world moments

See FootballOne work

Short animated scenes of real moments: what happens today, what FootballOne does about it, and what lands on your phone. The same scenes play in the IEMI app.

Demo scenes show how FootballOne and its app are designed to behave. FootballOne is in design; nothing here is recorded from real equipment yet.

The idea

The goals are the referee: they call goals, goal kicks, corners and the penalty keeper rule, light up, and run the rest of the game

How the parts connect

FootballOne, wired up

Every part, what links it to the brain, and how the data reaches your phone. A solid line is a cable; a dashed line is a radio link.

The program

What controls FootballOne

while True:
    pos = cams.positions() + line.events()      # post-top IMX500 + goal-line cameras, time-synced
    ring.push(pos)
    call = rules.decide(ring, match)            # goal, goal kick, corner, penalty retake, keeper 8 s
    if call:
        if call.conf < call.limit: call = call.unsure()
        signed = se.sign(call, clips.keep(ring, 10))   # ATECC608, append-only log
        posts.light(call.colour); horn.play(call.tone)
        wrist.buzz(call.short); app.publish(signed)
    for ev in bar.events() + away.events() + tamper.events():
        log.add(se.sign(ev))
    clock.tick(wrist.keys())

To your phone

How the data reaches FootballOne

Coach's or club volunteer's phone at the side of the pitch

1. Home left post
2. Wi-Fi access point · MQTT
3. Coach's phone and the club tablet
4. USB, UART and BLE
5. Home left post

Key specs

Targets for production units; they may change during development.

Pricing

Target pricing. A plain pair of 24 x 8 ft socketed aluminium goals with nets costs about £1,615-2,775 (about $2,100-3,600). Bought separately, our GoalSide, SmartGoal Academy and OffsideFlag kits cost $4,814 + $150/month, plus about $2,400 for plain goals: about $7,214. Parts cost $2,806 per pair at qty 1 (prices checked 28 Oct 2026; frames est.).

Indicative launch pricing in USD, excluding taxes and shipping. Final pricing is confirmed before any balance is charged.

1. 4 Nov 2026, 05:20LatestA club buys FootballOne as its pair of full-size goals, socketed at both ends of the pitch and left out all season. So the electronics must be boards an assembly house makes and tests the same way every time, inside the goal's own 120 × 100 aluminium posts and crossbar (IFAB Law 1), running a full tournament day on their own cells and taking shots on the frame.

   • What we designed: one board of our own that fits all four posts, and one in each crossbar. The post board is an 8-layer spine, 92 × 760 mm, standing up the inside of the oval post with the processor (a copper block to the back wall, so the post is the heat sink), memory, the security chip, a motion chip for hits and tilt, four soldered cells with their charger and a capped charge socket, the call lights and the horn. Small heads on flexes carry the pitch camera chip behind its window, the goal-line camera chip folded to the inside face (turned round in the right posts, so the same board fits every post), the antenna behind a new radio window, the tamper switch and microSD card under the crossbar joint, and in the home left post the wrist unit's charge pads. The crossbar board carries the ESP32-S3 module, a motion chip, one cell and the junction where both posts' leads meet. See it at /build/footballone-boards.
   • How we checked it: the boards are written as code and opened in KiCad (0 design-rule violations). The code places 66 parts at their sizes and checks every corner of every part inside the oval bore in 3D, no overlaps, the lights, horn, antenna and charge socket on their openings, and that all 14 goal calls (the ball on the line from the middle to the far post and up to the crossbar, the goal line 16.5 m beyond the far post, the keeper's feet on the line, the penalty mark, the area line and the goal-area corners) are in view from where the chips really sit. The design review runs every shared rule: 23 pass, 3 fixed, 6 to prove on the first boards, 0 fail. A size 5 ball is 32 px across at the far top corner and frozen to 16.5 mm at 120 km/h; four cells give 12.2 h of a 10-hour day with the cells aged and cold.
   • What we learned: on our own board the bench goal-line camera, 1.22 m up, would have been a metre of camera lanes from the processor. It moved up to 2.0 m and tilts 10° down, and every goal-line call is still in view. The pitch window grew from 16 to 20 mm for our lens, and each post gained a 20 mm radio window and a capped charge socket; the wrist-unit dock moved up to 1.5 m so its pads sit on the same board. All drawn in the goal CAD in the same run; Law 1 sizes, every fit check and every camera view still pass. There were no new CricketOne board decisions since the last update, and every board was re-run: no problems, every review 0 fail, KiCad 0 violations.
   • What is next: the board inside the goal CAD with every part checked in 3D; Wi-Fi and BLE range from the windows in the aluminium; the goal-line camera on the development kit at 120 frames a second; and the next board, GarageOne.

   See it in 3DFull research and design

2. 29 Oct 2026, 17:16The 2026/27 Laws of the Game took effect on 1 July 2026 (IFAB). They add a visible 5-second countdown for a goal kick that takes too long, with a corner to the other team when it runs out, and change who gets a dropped ball (IFAB, Concacaf).

   • Market and rules check (DESIGN.md): every 2026/27 Law change listed with what it changes in FootballOne; Law 1 (the goal itself) is unchanged, so the CAD and the legal checks stand
   • New call: the goal kick countdown. With no referee the posts count five white steps when the ball sits too long in the goal area, then show amber for the corner; with a referee, the referee starts it and the posts show it (equipment.json)
   • Camera views checked in the CAD: 4 new goal-area targets, 14 in all, pass; the middle of the goal-area front edge is just outside both views, so a ball placed there gets no countdown rather than a guess
   • Competitors: a new search found no grassroots goal that makes calls; clubs still choose between video cameras and volunteer referees. Price kept at $4,690
   • Product page https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/ gains a 2026/27 Laws FAQ and the countdown in its calls
   • Next: ask youth leagues in phase 3 whether they use the countdown without a referee; close-out C9 (recommend the first product to the owner) from 30 Oct 00:00

   See it in 3DFull research and design

3. 28 Oct 2026, 18:45A youth football club needs its goals called fairly when no referee turns up: county FAs pay youth referees about £10-45 a match but cannot cover every game (Kent FA, Berks and Bucks FA), and a plain pair of full-size goals already costs the club £1,615-2,775 (The Soccer Store).

   • Buyer check with sources: what clubs pay for goals, referees and video today, the three closest products (Veo-style video, SmartGoals training goals, professional goal-line technology), and the one-line reason to buy; price kept at $4,690 for the pair
   • Parts list prices checked on maker pages today: parts $2,770 a pair at qty 1; the wrist e-paper part number is now confirmed
   • Cost and margin table in the design notes: about 34 % at qty 1 and 52 % at qty 100 (est.); the aluminium frame is about 70 % of the parts cost
   • New finding: most youth matches use 21 x 7 or 16 x 7 ft goals, so smaller sizes go to customer reviews first
   • Product page: shorter summary, the calls it makes alone listed in the specs, battery corrected to about 15 hours per post (est.), the first four FAQs answer the buyer's top questions
   • Stage 2 verdict: stage 2 ready, with three questions for customer reviews (league approval, youth sizes and price, the lights and horn on the field)

   See it in 3DFull research and design

4. 28 Oct 2026, 02:22Many youth and grassroots football games have no qualified referee: county FAs have reported losing about a quarter of their officials in a season and thousands of games played without one (Edge Hill University, https://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/isr/?p=4344). Certified goal-line technology costs about £250,000 a ground (https://www.si.com/si-wire/2013/04/25/mls-decides-against-goal-line-technology), so clubs need the goal itself to call goals, corners and penalty retakes, with nothing else on the pitch (IFAB Laws 1, 12 and 14).

   • Rev O design of FootballOne: the goal now calls goal or no goal, goal kicks and corners near the goal, the penalty keeper rule and the 8-second keeper hold by itself in club, school, youth and training play, and gives evidence on encroachment and keeper handling. In league matches it only assists the referee
   • Inside every post: a goal-line camera behind a small flush window, a call light band (green goal, white goal kick, amber corner or retake, blue unsure) behind flush clear strips, a horn, and a tamper switch; a secure chip in each left post signs every call. Below a stated confidence it says unsure and the coaches check the clip in the app
   • Designed for the hits: a 200 J shot, a keeper hanging on the crossbar, a goal pulled over and a player running into the post; the post keeps the same section with no new edges. Offside stays a gap because nothing may stand on the halfway line
   • CAD review: every new part sized from its datasheet, the script checks that each camera sees the calls it makes, no collisions and no floating parts. New app screens, including a no-official match mode. Price $4,690 a pair against about $7,214. Next: CourtOne becomes its own referee (rev O3); see https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

5. 27 Oct 2026, 23:05A youth football club buys goals every few years, and IFAB Law 1 fixes their size: 7.32 m between the posts, 2.44 m to the crossbar, posts and crossbar the same width and depth, at most 12 cm, and white (https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/the-field-of-play/). Our rule is that the product must be that goal, legal on the pitch, with nothing else to carry or set up.

   • Redesigned FootballOne (rev S) as a smart goal pair: two goals at Law 1 size drawn in code CAD, and the script checks 7.32 m between the posts, 2.44 m to the crossbar and the same 120 x 100 mm section for posts and crossbar
   • Inside each goal: an AI camera behind a flush window and a Pi Zero 2 W at the top of each post, four cells in each post foot, and a radio with a motion sensor in the crossbar for woodwork hits and a tilt alarm
   • Removed the pitch-side hub, access-point stand, post saddles, heading pod, two halfway boards, flag grips and body camera; offside, buzzer flags, the body camera, the boards and full-match video are listed as gaps with the reason
   • The referee wrist unit (reused from CricketOne) is the one detachable part and docks flush in the back of the left post; the keeper's 8-second count is now automatic from the post cameras
   • CAD review: every bought part sized from its maker page or datasheet, both goals 100 m apart in their sockets, no collisions, no floating parts. Price $4,490 for the pair vs about $7,214 for our three kits plus plain goals (est.). Next: ball-strike tests on a post and the CourtOne smart backboard; see https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

6. 27 Oct 2026, 23:05One football product per club, as the smart goal itself.

   • Still part of FootballOne, now redesigned as a smart goal: https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

7. 27 Oct 2026, 23:05One football product per club, as the smart goal itself.

   • Still part of FootballOne, now redesigned as a smart goal: https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

8. 27 Oct 2026, 23:05One football product per club, as the smart goal itself.

   • Still part of FootballOne, now redesigned as a smart goal: https://iemilabs.com/products/footballone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

Smart equipment · legal on the field

FootballOne is the football goal (pair): two posts and a crossbar at each end, made smart

It replaces a club's full-size aluminium socketed goals at both ends of the pitch (the same build comes in the FA's 21 x 7 ft and 16 x 7 ft youth sizes), with every part built in. Everything is inside the two posts and the crossbar: an AI camera behind a window and a Pi Zero 2 W at the top of each post, four 18650 cells and a charger at each post foot, a radio with a motion sensor and one cell in the crossbar centre. Rev O adds a goal-line camera behind a flush Ø12 window in each post's inside face, a call light band (four LED sticks behind flush clear strips) and a horn in every post, a tamper switch under each crossbar joint and a secure element in each left post. Same size, sockets and installation as a plain goal. About 34.2 kg of aluminium per goal (from the CAD) plus about 1.4 kg of electronics (est.).