CHAPTER ONE

1.1. Introduction

A layman may see substitution during football match as a mere exit of a player on the

pitch for a new player coming off the bench; a true football fan will disagree.

Substitution is one of the most anticipated moments during the football match whereby

the spectators, the viewers at home, the commentators, even the opposition team can

expect what may happen next during the match. This is because a fore-knowledge of the

player coming in to replace exhausted team member always inspire the spectators to

hope for improvement, especially if the incoming player is prominent and may turn the

game around.

Most competitions only allow each team to make a maximum of three substitutions

during a game, although more substitutions are often permitted in non-competitive

fixtures such as friendly matches. Unlike some sports (such as Basketball or Hockey), a

player who has been substituted during a match shall take no further part in it.

According to the Swiss watchmaker, Tagheuer, the conventional substitution methods

practiced in football include – Oral Substitution, whereby the coach will relay the

intended player to leave the pitch to the 4th

Official, whom calls the player by his name & number. This method was met with

criticism such as stress of shouting players‟ name, the fans voices and anthems may

override that of the official.

Another method was the Placard Substitution Board. Here, wooden or plastic placards

coded with different numbers were displayed during substitution. This method was

countered with time-wasting factor of searching for placards, especially during

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unexpected substitutions like injury.

Next, the Manual Substitution Board. This board has a rectangular frame whereby

two square-shaped cards are inserted from both edges. The left edge holds the outgoing

player‟s number while the incoming player‟s number is inserted into the frame from

the right edge. The challenge was the cost of producing several square cardboards so as

to cover more jersey numbers. Also, the brightness of the manual board may not be

visible to spectators far away from the pitch.

Discovery of solid state electronics such as transistors, LEDs brought about Electronic

Substitution Board, The need to design a digital board cannot be over-emphasized.

The digital board has a high luminosity which will be visible to all spectators; it does

not require the stock of cardboards; it provides an image of modernity and advancement

in Electronics Engineering.

1.2. Problem Statement

During football matches at the Unilorin Main-Bowl Stadium, the spectators complain of

not hearing the voice when the 4th official pronounces the outgoing player‟s name at the

time of substitution.

Another attached challenge is that the spectators cannot track the amount of stoppage

time added to the normal 45mins per half, because the finger signal made by the referee

may not be visible to them.

1.3. Aim of the project

This project is aimed at developing a Soccer Substitution Board whose display will be

visible to spectators 100m away from the 4th Official, both in Daylight and Night match

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conditions.

1.4. Objectives Of The Project

 specify the requirements of a Soccer Substitution Board in general and

then apply it to a circuitry using an Arduino microcontroller;

 write and debug the code for the LED display and the Input Keypad; and

 construct the glass cover and other external packaging.

1.5. Scope of the Project

This project will be making use of high resolution LEDs , which are water crystal based

Light Emitting Diode (LED), They are transparent when in LOW state but glow RED or

GREEN when in HIGH state: RED for outgoing player jersey‟ number while GREEN

represents incoming player jersey‟ number. The height of each digit is 32cm; the weight

of the board is approximately 1.5kg. A Darlington IC will also be used to amplify the

current signals so that the display resolution is brighter and visible to a spectator 100m

away from the board. A rechargeable power back-up, which can last up to 1hour of

active display, shall be incorporated.

The expected results are:

a. a circuit that can convert keypad signals to data that will be displayed

as numbers at the output unit; a pair of RED LEDs and another pair of

GREEN LEDs that will display numbers ranging from 00 to 99 ; and

a. an output LED display that is visible to a spectator 100m away from the

4th official.

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1.6. Arrangement of Project

Chapter one introduces the basic fundamentals of the project work. It outlines the aim

and objectives as well as scope of the project.

Chapter two of this project work outlines the relevant literature on existing works that

have been reviewed for the purpose of this project.

Chapter three gives in full detail the methodology employed for the purpose of this

project work, presenting the design of each stage of the project which includes hardware

as well as software design.

Chapter four discusses the results obtained from tests carried out on the implemented

project work. This section fully discussed the results derived from analyzed data.

Chapter five is devoted to conclusions inferred from the results obtained in chapter four.

This section also suggests recommendations as observed through the course of the

project work.

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 Chapter Two

2.1 Literature Review

the Wall Street Journal. The excerpt reads “The timing of substitution is strategic”.

Substitution is the most tactical opportunity that both teams can exploit to turn the game

around. Science has continually analyzed and improves substitutions in Soccer. From the

above, it can be deduced that Science and Technology has never rest on its laurels to

ensure clear and standard means are used to perform substitution in Football. Other

innovations are the goal-line technology and the Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR), but

that is not the focus of this project work.

The English FA in the article “Get involved as a Referee”. Football, in its early stage,

does not have name or number behind players‟ jersey. Substitution was performed

orally. There was no Fourth official, substitutions were handled by linesman. The coach

would have communicated the players to exit the pitch to the linesman prior to the

substitution. This practice was way too ineffective and time wasting because the decibel

level of the fans anthem and chants will definitely override that of just one official.

Douglas Booth (2005) in his best-selling book titled “The Field: Truth and Fiction in

sport history”, described a Manual Substitution Board which displaced oral substitution.

The board has a pair of black frame with 7 slots; the slots are filled with cardboards to

form the required jersey number. One frame was coded in Red cardboard, while the other

pair was coded in Yellow cardboard. This manual board project successfully phased out
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oral substitution. Obviously, it was cost effective since no electrical circuit was required.

The project was however hampered with the following criticism: slots got damaged as

the cardboards are inserted or removed while trying to form different number; Yellow

was not widely accepted as the standard colour for incoming player, Green was

perceived as a colour that fits opposite of Red; the pair of frame methodology was

questioned, one of the pair may be misplaced. Why not combine both frames into one?

Figure 2.1: Manual Substitution Board

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FIFA released a report titled “referee‟s equipment” which illustrated a Flip Manual

Substitution Board in a single frame whereby the separate boards and slots were

eliminated. The project was made up of a rectangular frame which can hold four digits; a

pair of the digits was coded in RED while the other pair was coded in GREEN. The

cardboard used in the previous work was also improved; the numbers were formed by

fixing plastic pads into open ports. The project successfully displaced the previous

manual board as it incorporates OUT and IN tag beneath the RED and GREEN digits.

This idea ensured all the spectators and viewers can comprehend the substitution, even if

they do not understand the colour codes.

The project was also criticized as follows: the plastic segments does not glow, therefore,

not all the spectators can see the displayed numbers during Night match conditions.

Figure 2.2: Flip Manual Substitution Board

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Considering the breakthrough achieved in electronics in 1947 with the invention of the

first transistor at Bell Laboratories, and other vital semiconductors such as: diode,

integrated circuit (IC), a digital substitution board was imminent.

According to a published note in New York‟s Electrical World the discovery of LED

was credited to Henry Joseph Round in 1907. Round was a British experimenter in

Marconi Laboratory, who observed for the first time that when a potential of

+10Volts is applied to carborundum (Silicon carbide) crystal, it emits yellowish light.

Years later in 1961, Gary Pittman and Robert Baird invented and patented an infrared

LED for Texas Instruments.They observed that Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) diode emits

infrared light when energized. This is thought to be the first LED, however, since it was

infrared, it was beyond the visible light spectrum. Perhaps, it‟s a well known fact that

humans cannot see infrared light.

The first visible spectrum LED (Red) was developed by Dr Nick Holonyak Jr. in 1962,

He developed this when working as a consulting engineer for General Electric

Company.In 1960, Holonyak was developing an unusual material, Gallium Arsenide

Phosphide as a route to wide band gap tunnel diodes. When an infra-red Gallium

Arsenide semiconductor laser was showcased in 1962, Holonyak with his wider

bandwidth Gallium Arsenide Phosphide was in the ideal position to have a go at making

a visible version. With advice from his gallium arsenide laser pioneer and fellow GE

employee Dr Robert Hall, Holonyak managed to make his visible LED later in 1962. He

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first reported this breakthrough in the journal Applied Physics Letters on the 1st of

December, 1962. Holonyak is called the “father of the light-emitting diode”.

George Crawford invented the first yellow-coloured LED. The first blue LED that used

Gallium Nitride was invented by Shuji Nakamura in 1994. Later, white LEDs were

developed.

As reported on Wikipedia, Seven- segment display was invented by F.W. Wood in the

year 1908, which displays digit “4” by using a diagonal bar. In 1910, a seven- segment

display illuminated by incandescent bulbs was used on a power-plant boiler room signal

panel. With the advent of LED in 1970, the use of Seven-segment display became

widespread.

Scanning through “Design and Construction of Football Substitution Board” by Adegoke

Rasheed. The methodology employed included: a dry cell at the power supply unit, a

combination of 555 timer and IC as the processor, soldering of several npn transistors as

the Amplifier and Pushbuttons as the input unit. This methodology is viewed as

inadequate because dry cell supplies are non-rechargeable and the complicated circuitry

will lead to high power consumption. Therefore, this project shall incorporate a

rechargeable power unit and low power consumption circuitry.With review on “Design

and Construction of Footballers‟ Substitution Board” by Peter Dav-Ohiani whose design

methodology goes thus: a set of pushbutton as the Input keypad, each press serves as one

clock pulse. Therefore, the official will have to press the button thrice to display jersey
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number three during substitution. Also, the amplifier, that boosts the signals transmitted

from the processor to the LED display, consists of eight NPN Darlington pairs.

Therefore, each pair will be soldered to the processor individually.

As an improvement, this project work will introduce a 3*4 Matrix Keypad to replace the

pushbuttons. Furthermore, a compact Darlington IC (which has incorporated all eight

Darlington pairs internally) will be used as the amplifier. The 3*4 matrix keypad will

save time in logging numbers into the processor and the compact Darlington IC will

ensure simple circuitry and less soldering work.

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