FIFA’s 2026 World Cup will sharpen how offside is decided and shown to fans. Two pillars drive this: semi-automated offside technology (already used at Qatar 2022 and refined since) and AI-enabled 3D player avatars that make tracking and visuals more accurate and easier to understand. Here’s how the system works from scan to screen.
How Semi-Automated Offside Works
Semi-automated offside is a support tool for video and on-field referees. It speeds up and standardises offside decisions instead of replacing the referee. FIFA’s technical explanation describes the setup: 12 dedicated tracking cameras under the stadium roof follow the ball and up to 29 data points on each player (limbs and extremities that matter for offside) 50 times per second, giving exact positions on the pitch. A sensor in the match ball sends data 500 times per second so the system can pinpoint the exact moment the ball is played.
When the ball is received by an attacker who was offside at that moment, the system automatically alerts the video match officials. They then validate the proposed decision by checking the suggested kick point and the automatically drawn offside line—instead of manually searching for the frame and drawing the line, which Reuters reported typically takes around 70 seconds per VAR offside check. With semi-automated offside, that validation happens in a few seconds. After the referee on the pitch confirms the decision, the same positional data is turned into a 3D animation of the players’ limbs at the moment of the pass. That animation is shown on stadium screens and fed to broadcast partners so fans see a single, consistent picture of why the decision was made.
The 3D Avatar Pipeline
For 2026, FIFA and Lenovo are adding AI-enabled 3D player avatars so that semi-automated offside can identify and track players more reliably, especially when they are moving quickly or partially obscured. FIFA’s announcement at Lenovo Tech World 2026 states that every player at the tournament will be digitally scanned to create a precise 3D model. The BBC reported that each player steps into a scanning chamber during the pre-tournament photo shoot; the scan takes about one second and captures highly accurate body-part dimensions. That scan is done once per player and then used for the whole competition.
Those 3D models improve two things: officiating and presentation. For officiating, the system can map limb positions more accurately during fast or obstructed movements, so the offside line is based on the actual goalscoring body parts. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has said the avatars will ensure “precise player identification and tracking” and better offside decisions. For presentation, the same 3D models are used in the host broadcast so that offside rulings can be “displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way” to fans in the stadium and to viewers at home—addressing past criticism that automated offside graphics sometimes didn’t match what viewers saw on the broadcast. The setup was successfully trialled at the FIFA Intercontinental Cup in December 2025 with Flamengo and Pyramids FC players scanned ahead of the match and the system used throughout the game.
The Decision Flow in the VAR Room
The workflow stays human-in-the-loop. The technology proposes the kick point and the offside line; the video match officials must validate them. If they disagree, they can manually select the kick point and draw the offside line using existing tools. Only after the referee on the pitch confirms the decision is the 3D animation generated and released to the stadium and broadcast. So semi-automated offside plus 3D avatars does not remove the referee—it gives them a faster, more consistent and visually clear basis to explain decisions to the world.
Stadium and Broadcast: Clearer for Fans
Fans benefit in two places: in the venue and on TV. In the stadium, the same 3D animation that the VAR used is shown on the big screen, so the crowd sees exactly which body part was ahead of the line and when the ball was played. On broadcast, that same graphic is available to all FIFA’s broadcast partners, so every viewer gets the same clear, consistent image instead of varying or confusing replays. Together with the new “Referee View” (stabilised referee-camera footage), the 2026 package is designed to make officiating more transparent and easier to follow.
What to Expect in 2026
By 2026, the pipeline is: one-second scan → 3D avatar per player → limb and ball tracking → automated offside alert → quick VAR validation → 3D animation on screen. The result is faster, more consistent offside decisions and a single, clear visual story for everyone in the stadium and at home. Semi-automated offside and 3D player avatars are how FIFA’s 2026 tech makes VAR both more accurate and more understandable.