2026 World Cup: FIFA unveils AI technology to enhance VAR decisions
Over the years, soccer has adapted to the demands of the modern era and embraced new technologies to improve the game. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system was the most significant of these innovations, and now, ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, AI will also be incorporated.
“FIFA and Lenovo have unveiled a series of technological innovations driven by artificial intelligence (AI) that are set to enhance officiating technologies, match analysis capabilities and performance,” FIFA said in a statement published on its official website.
The most notable development involves the semi-automated offside system first introduced at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. At that time, there were criticisms regarding how players were represented, with physical characteristics that did not match reality, potentially raising doubts about the accuracy of offside decisions.
“AI-enabled 3D player avatars represent a significant development in semi-automated offside technology,” FIFA explained. “Players participating in the upcoming global showpiece will be digitally scanned to create a precise 3D model. Each scan takes approximately one second and captures highly accurate body-part dimensions, allowing the system to track players reliably during fast or obstructed movements.”
The statement added: “In addition, the 3D models will be incorporated into the host broadcast, enabling offside decisions determined by the video assistant referee (VAR) system to be displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way to fans at stadiums and to viewers around the world.”
Other uses of AI during the World Cup
In addition to improving the semi-automated offside system, FIFA will use AI to produce sharper images captured by the referee’s camera. “Using AI-powered stabilization software, footage captured from the referee’s camera will be smoothed in real time, reducing motion blur caused by rapid movement,” the statement added.
This will significantly enhance the quality of images recorded from the referees’ perspective and allow these shots to be included more frequently in official match broadcasts, contributing to a more immersive experience for spectators.
National teams also set to benefit from these advances
Finally, the third innovation presented by FIFA president Gianni Infantino involves AI-generated databases created from match analyses, which will be available to all 48 national teams participating in the FIFA World Cup.
“Football AI Pro analyses hundreds of millions of FIFA-owned and -organized football data points to generate validated insights in text, video, graphs and 3D visualizations,” the statement explains. “The interface will support prompts in many languages and will deliver consistent, tournament-wide intelligence based on millions of football data points per game. The new tool can be used before and after matches for match analysis, but not during live play.”