While the LAZRSpray device is designed to support referees in match-defining moments – such as direct free kicks – players and coaches will also benefit from its implementation in football.
Following more than a thousand hours of engineering, the device’s development coincides with the growing relationship between the game and technology that was highlighted at the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Experienced manager Roberto Martínez has two World Cups under his belt, first with Belgium in 2022 and then with Portugal this summer – the latest chapter in a football career spanning more than 30 years.
After Martínez’s hometown club CF Balaguer handed him his breakthrough in senior competition, he went on to make more than 350 appearances in the English football pyramid between 1995 and 2007.
In that time, he enjoyed long-term spells at Wigan Athletic and Swansea City – two clubs he later led to silverware as a manager, before three years steering the ship at Everton.
His international managerial career that followed saw him work with some of the best set-piece specialists in the world including Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, and Kevin de Bruyne, who have continued to emphasize the importance of free kicks in winning matches.
“Football is a low-scoring sport, which means that those opportunities to score goals are things that you work on actively,” Martínez told LAZRSpray developers during his tenure as Belgium’s head coach.
“Anything that has got to do with dead-ball situations, you can replicate exactly what’s going to happen in a game.
“Unfortunately, what is never exact is the distance from the ball to the wall; it is an area where the referee has to make a quick decision with a lot of pressure from the players and the crowd.”
Without an accurate measuring tool, the referee relies on correctly pacing out the required distance between the ball and the wall. Even with years of practice, the subjective nature of this technique that can result in unintentionally inconsistent wall positioning.
A study across two seasons in the Bundesliga revealed that one in three free-kick walls were off the required position by more than half a meter – a frustration that Martínez has felt in the game.
“You’ve been working a lot in this specialism, beating the wall in a certain position, but then on the matchday for whatever reason the distance is not the exact distance we have been training on.
“This is probably one area that referees could do with some technology and some help to make it accurate, and to go along with how technology is helping players to prepare for games on the training pitch.”
Using optical time-of-flight rangefinder technology, the LAZRSpray device is designed to quickly and correctly measure the ball-to-wall distance, allowing the user to adjust their wall position until they are exactly 10 yards away from the ball.
By ensuring this distance consistent on the training pitch and across matches, it’s anticipated the device will result in more free-kick goals and iconic moments for fans.