World Cup 2026: Fifa to digitally scan all players to create offside avatars

FIFA plans to create AI-powered 3D avatars of every player in the 2026 World Cup to improve the tournament’s semi-automatic offside technology.

This will mean digital scanning of all 1,248 players on 48 teams’ 26-man rosters.

Each player will enter a room to be scanned; This process will only take a second and will only need to be done once during the pre-tournament photo shoot.

FIFA says the scan “captures the dimensions of body parts extremely accurately” to enable more accurate offside decisions.

He expects this will mean tournament officials will be able to “reliably track players during fast or hurdle moves” and says final decisions will be “displayed in a more realistic and engaging way”.

Earlier this season, there was controversy in the Premier League when Newcastle’s goal against Manchester City was allowed to stand.

Ruben Dias appeared to jump the semi-automatic offside chart. This situation did not coincide with the television footage of the match.

FIFA hopes that by providing accurate screening of each player, it can improve the way these decisions are displayed to fans.

The technology was tested in the Fifa Intercontinental Cup when players from Flamengo and Pyramids FC were scanned ahead of their matches in December.

FIFA announced last month that it was testing new technology that could determine whether the ball was out of play before a goal was scored. It also developed ‘real-time 3D recreation’ to make line-of-sight offside decisions.