FIFA has confirmed a suite of technology upgrades for the 2026 World Cup, which runs from 11 June to 19 July across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, covering refereeing accuracy, performance analysis, and broadcast quality.
Johannes Holzmuller, FIFA’s director of innovation, outlined the changes at a virtual press conference from the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas. The most significant is an advanced semi-automated offside system, making its World Cup debut. Under the new setup, clear offside calls will be sent directly to on-field referees rather than routed through the video assistant referee room, cutting decision time during matches. Discretionary cases involving interference with play will still go through VAR review.
All players from the 48 participating national teams will be 3D-scanned to merge their physical and digital likenesses into the system. FIFA says this improves decision accuracy and the quality of three-dimensional television replays.
The federation is also launching Football AI Pro, an artificial intelligence platform that will give every participating team equal access to advanced performance analysis tools, with faster retrieval of tactical data.
Referee-worn cameras, tested during the Club World Cup 2025, have been upgraded to improve footage quality and give viewers a clearer view of refereeing decisions as they happen.
Each stadium will carry 16 optical tracking cameras per match, generating more than 150 million data points per game. The data will support 3D match reconstruction, assist VAR decisions, and feed both Football AI Pro and broadcast partners with enhanced content.
