The FIFA World Cup 2026™ will introduce significant technological innovations, allowing faster offside decisions and improved images from referee body cameras. It will also further democratise football technology by ensuring that all 48 participating teams will have equal access to match analysis capabilities and performance, regardless of their size or resources. During a virtual media round table from the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Dallas, United States, FIFA Director of Innovation Johannes Holzmüller outlined the main innovations that will feature at the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Meanwhile, Art Hu, Chief Information Officer at Lenovo, FIFA’s Official Technology Partner, shared how their cutting-edge technology, innovation and expertise have contributed to key developments. “I think that really was the perfect partnership between FIFA - who bring the football language, the deep football knowledge of where it has been and where it wants to go - along with Lenovo bringing some of the technology, and we really worked together hand-in-glove on how we can improve this,” said Mr Hu.

Advanced Semi-Automated Offside Technology will feature at the FIFA World Cup™ for the first time, allowing faster offside decisions and reducing the injury risk for players in the moments between the offside taking place and the flag being raised. Unlike the Semi-Automated Offside Technology used at the FIFA World Cup 2022™, where information was sent directly to the video assistant referee (VAR), clear offsides –- will now be sent directly to the match officials on the pitch. “So, that means, instantly, the assistant referees can flag for positional offsides, allowing a much quicker decision,” said Mr Holzmüller. He stressed that the improved system is limited to positional offside and will not determine interferences in play for players who are offside but do not touch the ball.

To further enhance accuracy, every participating player at the FIFA World Cup 2026 will be 3D-scanned with their images and digital avatars incorporated into the Semi-Automated Offside technology system. “This is helpful for officiating, but at the end, also exciting for football fans since we will also improve the broadcasted 3D replays, where the players really look like the players and it’s immediately obvious which players are involved in the offside position,” he said. Another leading innovation for the tournament is Football AI Pro, a generative AI knowledge assistant developed to allow 48 participating teams to benefit from the same advanced pre- and post-match analytical capabilities.

Mr Holzmüller said that, previously, FIFA provided teams with data in the form of reports that ran to 50 or 60 pages for each match. But, while these needed to be interpreted by match analysts, Football AI Pro makes it much easier for teams to extract the information they need. “We believe that this could help not only to speed up this process but also democratise it because, as you can imagine, probably not every participating team can afford [to bring] a huge team of match analysts to the (FIFA) World Cup, or [to work] on that data. So, we believe by providing all teams with the same access to (the) latest technology [such as this], we hope we can also democratise the use, the access (to) and the benefits of the latest technology," said Mr Holzmüller. Referee body cameras were first used at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ and the trial exceeded expectations. Since then, Lenovo has developed technology which reduces motion blur caused by rapid movement and the stabilised footage now delivers a higher quality, first-person perspective for global audiences, enhancing transparency, understanding and engagement throughout the match.

Mr Holzmüller also explained how referees, teams, medical staff and fans would benefit from the 16 optical tracking cameras installed in each of the 16 stadiums, producing over 150 million tracking data points per match. Firstly, the data allows FIFA to recreate the entire match in 3D and make this feed available to the VAR – particularly useful in judging whether a player who is offside is interfering with play. “When a player, an attacking player, is blocking the view of the goalkeeper, then in this situation, the VAR has access to this feed and can check if this player, who is in a potential offside situation, has really blocked the view of the ball,” said Mr Holzmüller. Secondly, this data can also help match officials determine whether the ball has crossed the touchline in the build-up to a goal. It can also be used by media partners to show highlights or entire matches in 3D. Last but not least, this feed is incorporated into FIFA AI Pro as the basis for 3D recreations.