A historical group stage has successfully been completed at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, and now the highly anticipated round of 32 is underway. In addition to seeing new teams in a fresh, expanded 48-team format, a number of technological innovations have added significantly to the beautiful game and experience of it at the tournament. Developed over recent years with FIFA’s Official Technology Partner Lenovo, the Referee View, Player Avatars and Football AI Pro have enriched the tournament with first-of-their-kind innovations.

Referee View Referee View is the output of a small, lightweight video camera securely worn on the main official’s head that captures the referee’s point of view during matches. It has been in use for all group stage games, recording and transmitting high-definition video and audio in real-time that have been integrated live into the broadcast as well as being used for post-match footage.

Lenovo provides a stabilised feed using their proprietary algorithm which is capable of correcting imperfections in the original feed, most notably excessive movement. Referee View has been a highlight of the group stage matches, offering spectacular angles of long-distance shots, great dribbles or simply highlighting the intensity of the action on the field. Player avatars used for advanced semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) and the SAOT animation One of the most notable innovations at the FIFA World Cup 2026 is the offside replay using more realistic player avatars. This end product was made possible through another innovation developed by FIFA and Lenovo. Lenovo provided all the technical expertise to create player scans of all 1,248 of the participating players in the build-up to the tournament. Mastering the complex logistics of getting 3D scanners to all 48 teams allowed for avatars to be created for every player at the FIFA World Cup™.

These avatars have been exclusively used for the advanced semi-automated offside technology system providing precise measurements of the players to enhance player tracking during offside assessments, as well setting a new standard for the 3D visualisations using the photographic elements of the avatars. The latter has allowed the display of the offside decisions to be more realistic and easier to understand. This first-of-a-kind project is testimony to the technical expertise provided Lenovo in using its hardware and applying AI in the process of avatar creation thus making this technology viable for use at such an unprecedented scale.

Football AI Pro Football AI Pro is an advanced post-match football analysis assistant powered by hybrid and generative artificial intelligence (AI). The first football intelligence tool of its kind with this particular use case, it was developed in close cooperation with Lenovo specifically for match analysts and coaching staff and focuses on analytical insights and report generation from official match data. It combines AI agents capable of querying through plain language, structured match data (event and tracking data) with the specialised FIFA Football Language model, video and other data sources to deliver tactical insights, performance analysis and strategic recommendations in a fast, reliable and structured way. Football AI Pro has been another astounding success. All 48 teams have interacted with it, querying the depth of the official football data, match footage and 3D videos. To date, the tool has been used in 15 different languages. This distinctive project highlights how artificial intelligence may support professional football in the future, from simplifying match analysis to making insights easier to access regardless of financial or human resources.