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

Fifa plans to create AI-enabled 3D avatars of every player at the 2026 World Cup to enhance the tournament’s semi-automated offside technology.

This will mean creating a digital scan of all 1,248 players in the 26-man squads of the 48 teams.

Each player will enter a chamber to be scanned, a process that should take just one second and only needs to be done once during their pre-tournament photo shoot.

Fifa says the scan “captures highly accurate body-part dimensions” to make more accurate offside decisions.

It expects this to mean tournament officials will be able to “track players reliably during fast or obstructed movements” and says final decisions will be “displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way”.

There was controversy in the Premier League earlier this season when a Newcastle goal against Manchester City was allowed to stand.

Ruben Dias appeared to be jumping in the semi-automated offside graphic. This did not match the television pictures of the game.

Fifa hopes that by taking accurate scans of each player it can improve how these decisions are shown to supporters.

The technology was tested in Fifa’s Intercontinental Cup, with Flamengo and Pyramids FC players scanned ahead of their match in December.

Fifa announced last month it was testing new technology which can determine if the ball goes out of play before a goal is scored. It has also developed ‘real-time 3D recreation’ to make line-of-sight offside decisions.