Explanation of the technological changes at the 2026 World Cup: ball out of play and improvements in offside

During the 2026 World Cup, referees will use new technologies that will allow them to check whether the ball is out of play during the build-up to a goal. These innovations aim to avoid the controversies surrounding Japan's winning goal in their 2-1 victory over Spain in the previous tournament in 2022.

The changes were announced by FIFA and technology partner Lenovo at a press conference and cover several aspects of the game: the awarding of corner kicks, how early assistant referees can flag for offside and the assessment of offside situations where the goalkeeper's field of vision is blocked.

Using enhanced 3D visuals and connected balls, referees can now view animations showing the exact position of the ball, similar to how goal line technology works. The controversies over whether the ball was in or out of play were a major talking point during the final round of group matches at the 2022 World Cup. Japan's goal against Spain saw them progress to the knockout stages as group winners and eliminate Germany.

Japanese forward Kaoru Mitoma managed to give a pass from the back line to Ao Tanaka, who scored the goal. The assistant referee flagged that the ball was out of play, but referee Victor Miguel de Freitas Gomes overruled this decision after consultation with the VAR. However, goal-line technology does not provide data beyond the goalposts, making it difficult to make a definitive judgment with the available camera angles.

The in-ball sensor can now precisely identify which player last touched the ball by tracking the movement 500 times per second. This will also help with the awarding of corners, with VARs now having expanded powers at the 2026 World Cup, allowing them to intervene on unfairly awarded corners, provided the match is not delayed.


Assistant referees will be able to flag for close offside situations more often thanks to an upgrade to the semi-automated offside technology introduced during the previous World Cup. This technology is designed to detect offside in near real-time, but previously only provided a signal when a player was more than 50 centimeters offside. Now it can assess situations much more precisely and signal if a player is more than 10 centimeters offside. Referees will also now receive an audio alert directly in their earpiece, which should speed up decision-making and reduce the number of incidents where the attack continues despite players waiting for the flag.

However, there are still limitations; the technology cannot interpret whether a player is disrupting play and may not be able to tell if offside has occurred if players are on the ground or if too many bodies are close together blocking the camera. FIFA is pleased with the outcome, given concerns about the risk of unnecessary injuries when assistant referees were urged to wait to raise their offside flags.

Tracking cameras around each stadium will support these technologies,with 16 cameras per venue this summer, compared to 12 in Qatar, and around 150 million data points will be collected per match. These cameras track each player closely, with 3D scans of 1,249 players used to create their own AI avatar. These scans are made during the media day of the tournament. The scans take just one second but improve the quality of the semi-automated offside replays used to show decisions.

Significant delays can occur when offside is identified but it is not clear whether, for example, a player is blocking a goalkeeper's view when shooting. A new line of sight feed will be available to VAR and viewers, showing the goalkeeper's perspective in these scenarios. The referee camera has also been improved and will now be known as the 'stabilized referee body camera'. This has proven popular with fans as it provides greater transparency into referees' communications and the speed at which they have to make decisions. However, it was determined that much of the footage was unusable due to the motion involved in refereeing. Lenovo has developed a way to reduce the shaking motion, making it a supportive tool for broadcasters, coaches and medical personnel in assessing possible injuries.

FIFA is also introducing Football AI Pro, which aims to "democratize access to data and analytics for all teams". In previous tournaments, FIFA provided each team with a detailed 50- to 60-page report after the match. The organization now offers a real-time experience where analysts can make a request via AI for the information they want, whether that's charts, video or data. Countries will have access to this before and after matches, but not during them, to create a level playing field between opponents in the first World Cup with 48 teams participating, pitting debutants such as Curacao and Cape Verde against traditional powerhouses such as Brazil, Germany and France.