At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, officials will have an unprecedented array of technology at their fingertips. High‑resolution cameras, in‑ball sensors and player‑specific digital twins will work together to pinpoint offsides, fouls and other pivotal moments, aiming to cut the number of blown calls that have long frustrated fans.
Hawk‑Eye, the event’s optical tracking provider, will deploy 16 high‑definition cameras to capture more than two dozen skeletal points on every player, a step up from the 12‑camera setup used in 2022. The match ball will carry a Kinexon sensor package—ultra‑wide‑band, accelerometer and gyroscope—recording position and spin 500 times per second from a 13‑gram pod vulcanized inside a new bladder. Meanwhile, Lenovo will feed 360‑degree scans of each athlete into the system, creating digital twins accurate to within one or two millimetres.
VAR technicians can now overlay this data to issue instant off‑side alerts, overturn corner‑kick decisions, or verify red‑card incidents without pausing play. A new “3‑D goalkeeper view” will help determine whether an attacker interfered with the keeper’s line of sight. FIFA tested the suite at the 2025 Club World Cup and several youth tournaments, and officials say the upgrades should eliminate the most egregious errors, even if they only affect a handful of calls throughout the tournament.
