FIFA Unveils Millimetre-Accurate Digital Twins and Enhanced Sensors for 2026 World Cup Officiating

The 2026 World Cup will deploy a significantly upgraded officiating technology package designed to eliminate significant errors and precise infractions, such as offside decisions involving a single toe. FIFA director of innovation Johannes Holzmüller stated that the upgrades aim to provide objective truths for consequential decisions, replacing subjective calls with data-driven accuracy. The system, which includes millimetre-accurate player models and immediate video assistant referee (VAR) alerts, was tested at the 2025 Club and Intercontinental Cups, as well as various youth tournaments over the preceding 18 months.

Every player participating in the tournament has undergone a 360-degree high-resolution body scan by FIFA’s technology partner, Lenovo. These scans create digital twins that match the athlete’s height, limb length, and shoe size with an accuracy of one to two millimetres. Art Hu, Lenovo’s global chief innovation officer, noted that this represents an order of magnitude improvement over the generic avatars previously used for offside and other VAR applications. The technical challenge lies in applying these static scans to Hawk-Eye’s skeletal pose data during active gameplay, requiring substantial computing power and algorithmic tuning.

Hawk-Eye serves as the optical tracking provider, utilising 16 high-resolution cameras to capture over two dozen skeletal points on each player at all times. This is an increase from the 12 cameras used in the 2022 World Cup. The optical data is combined with advanced sensors inside the match ball provided by Kinexon. The new sensor setup includes an ultrawide-band and inertial measurement unit (IMU) that records data 500 times per second, tracking the ball’s precise location and distinct touches, including spin captured by the gyroscope.

The physical placement of the ball sensor has also been refined to improve stability and impact resistance. In 2022, the sensor was suspended in the centre of the ball using a string-based sling. For 2026, Adidas has created a small bladder to hold the sensor, which is vulcanised along the inside wall of the ball. Kinexon cofounder Maximillian Schmidt explained that this vulcanisation is more stable than the previous string hooks, though it required counterbalancing to prevent the ball from wobbling due to the added weight on one side.

VAR protocols have been adjusted to reduce delays, with the system now issuing immediate alerts to sideline officials for obvious offside decisions to stop play right away. This differs from past arrangements that allowed play to continue after a violation, only stopping the action later if a notable event occurred. Additionally, a new “3D goalkeeper view” feature allows VAR to determine if an attacking player in an offside position interfered with the keeper, addressing a long-standing difficulty in accurately calling interference due to the number of players and field size.