How Will AI Be Used at the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

“2018 World Cup Final – France v Croatia (1st Half)” by MX, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/; image from Wikimedia Commons.

From goal line technology to VAR, technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of football.

Ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, this trend is set to accelerate, with recent announcements sharing how artificial intelligence (AI) in particular will be introduced.

An example of how AI will be used at the largest-ever World Cup is semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). 

Already in use in multiple top-flight leagues, there is debate surrounding the technology’s efficiency.

In a bid to streamline the process, FIFA have announced that players will be digitally scanned to create a 3D avatar to make offside calls more accurate, taking into account characteristics such as a player’s height.

Trialled during a FIFA Intercontinental Cup game in 2025 with Flamengo players, FIFA say each player scan will take 30-90 seconds and “captures highly accurate body-part dimensions, allowing the system to track players reliably during fast or obstructed movements.” 

To support assistant referees with offside calls, referees will also receive in-game AI feedback through their earpieces, hearing phrases such as ‘offside’ or ‘tight’ to better inform their offside calls, says Sebastian Runge, FIFA’s Head of Football Technology & Data.

Beyond officiating, AI is also set to be introduced to support coaching and analyst teams ahead of the tournament.

As part of their partnership with technology company Lenovo, FIFA have launched Football AI Pro. 

This is a generative AI knowledge assistant that is said to analyse “hundreds of millions” of footballing data points to create insights in text, video, graphs and 3D visualisations that analyst teams and coaches will then be given access to.

FIFA added that the introduction of the database, which will be available to all 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup, “reflects a shared ambition to harness innovation not only to advance elite performance, but also to help level the playing field in an increasingly data-driven sport.” 

This is a significant development, as smaller footballing nations have historically struggled to provide the same technological resources to their staff that larger nations have access to.

A third area where technology, and again, AI, will be introduced is in broadcasting.

Many domestic leagues this season have seen the introduction of ‘ref-cam’, a camera attached to either the referee’s chest or ear that provides viewers an alternate angle to watch the action.

This is set to feature at all 104 World Cup matches this year, and will incorporate AI-powered “stabilisation software” to improve the technology.

FIFA have said that footage captured with the referee’s camera, which will be mounted near the referee’s ear to provide the most accurate representation of what they see, “will be smoothed in real time, reducing motion blur caused by rapid movement.”

They add that the AI will be used to enhance “transparency, understanding, and engagement throughout the match,” and is a modern feature of football that has received positive feedback from fans this season.

The application of new technology in football will continue to ramp up in years to come, and will be a significant part of the ever-changing sporting landscape.

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Article by Zakaria Anani