The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the biggest tournament in the history of soccer. Forty-eight teams from three host countries will compete in a tournament that will last for 39 days, and some of the technology that we are going to see being used during the tournament will be the most advanced ever seen in the sport.
Much of the technology has been tested in competitions smaller than the World Cup, but it will be used on such a grand scale for the first time.
Here’s a look at some of the technology that will change the sport.
Sensors within the ball.
The official ball for the tournament will be Adidas’ Trionda (which means “three waves” in Spanish) as it celebrates the three host nations. The ball contains a lightweight sensor that measures the ball movement at a rate of 500 measurements per second in three dimensions.
The information collected from the ball feeds directly into the FIFA officiating system to monitor touches on the ball, movement of the ball, and other game-specific events. The sensor was already visible in the first match of the tournament, in which Mexico defeated South Africa with a score of 2-0 in front of the officiating referees who were watching a live feed of data that the fans could not see.
AI referees and 3D player avatars
The connected ball works alongside 16 optical tracking cameras that are installed in each stadium. These cameras keep close tabs on the players and the action of the ball during each match, collecting up to 29 data points from each player 50 times per second. This data is processed by the ai to alert officials of any incidents automatically.
The AI technology that enables this data processing is known as AI-enabled 3D player avatars. Each player in the match is body-scanned to create a 3D digital model of each player. This process takes around a second per player. Unlike in previous tournaments, where AI was used to create generic stick figure avatars of the players, which will be used to help determine crucial refereeing decisions at the World Cup.
Faster, fairer officiating
The biggest complaint from fans in relation to the VAR has been the delay in decisions on close offside calls. The upgraded Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) will allow referees to hear audio alerts directly in the earpieces of the assistant referees when players are positioned offside.
The offside threshold will also be reduced to 10 centimeters so that positional advantages on the field will be flagged for referees automatically. Video officials will have access to 3D live action footage on the stadium cameras to review the game through the viewfinder of the goalkeeper. Touchline sensors will also allow officials to determine if the ball exited the pitch before the goal was scored.
Augmented reality in the stands
Fans in the stadiums at the 16 football venues will be able to use augmented reality technology on their phones to view live feeds of the game with enhanced data on players in real time. This technology will work without crowding the data network of the stadiums. The 5G network in each stadium has been upgraded to support the amount of data that will be transferred. The amount of data that will be streamed from the stadium is 7 terabits per second to support streaming matches from around the world.
Why it matters beyond the trophy
What makes 2026 notable isn’t any single gadget but the convergence. Broadcast, security, transportation, officiating, and fan engagement now generate enormous volumes of data before a ball is even kicked. The same ball-and-camera data used to make offside calls also gives teams and analysts a detailed digital record of nearly every movement in a match — fuel for the kind of performance analysis that used to require entire scouting departments.
For better or worse, the World Cup has always been football’s showcase for its best players. In 2026, it’s also become a demonstration of how deeply technology has worked its way into the sport — and a likely blueprint for how every major sporting event gets run from here.
The Data Dynamo 