“The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the greatest spectacle the planet Earth has ever seen,” says FIFA President Gianni Infantino with confidence.
For the first time, the FIFA World Cup will be held across three countries: Mexico, the United States, and Canada. With 104 games, there will be 40 more matches than in 2022.
While media attention in Qatar had been focused on the newly built stadiums, it is now clearly shifting to artificial intelligence.
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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is setting new technological standards in every area: from the ball to the players.
Digital Twin Stadium: The Virtual Stadium
FIFA expects a total of 6.5 million visitors for the 2026 World Cup, with 104 matches taking place across 16 stadiums in three countries. Nothing is to be left to chance.
To ensure that everything runs smoothly and to maximize the fan experience, each of the 16 stadiums will be given a digital twin. This allows the movements of fans, queuing at security checks or food stands, or an evacuation to be not only simulated virtually in advance but also optimized in real time.
Thousands of connected sensors throughout the stadium provide the necessary real-time data. This allows for reduced wait times and better management and planning of visitor flows, ensuring maximum safety.
Football AI Pro: Post-Match Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence
When it comes to soccer, FIFA has the world’s most comprehensive database—with over 100 million data points.
This includes, among other things:
- Data, statistics, and match highlights from thousands of games
- Data on over a thousand players and their performance
- Team statistics
- Historical Trends
- Player Lists
With Football AI Pro, FIFA is making this knowledge available to all national teams for the first time. Multiple AI agents analyze over 2,000 parameters to provide coaches with a comprehensive analysis before and after matches. Access to Football AI is restricted during matches.
Smaller nations in particular benefit from this unique chatbot, which answers questions in real time. Without Football AI Pro, they would not be able to keep track of the vast amount of data.
Players also have access to this system, which provides them with personalized performance analyses.
AI-powered 3D player avatars
To ensure maximum accuracy in critical (offside) decisions, all players undergo a 3D scan, which is used to create an AI-powered 3D player avatar.
To provide fans—both in the stadium and watching at home—with maximum transparency regarding critical game decisions, a 3D avatar is created for each player that accurately replicates their real-life physical proportions 100% in the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system.
Unlike generic player models, that crucial centimeter—for example, in an offside situation—can tip the scales.
These ultra-realistic avatars can also be used to create impressive visualizations of the highest quality.
Players and the ball, fully connected
The game ball is a high-tech device; the players’ vital signs are constantly monitored, and everyone is connected.
The sensor inside the game ball transmits its position 500 times per second to a stationary tracking system. The players’ heart rates and heart rate variability are continuously monitored by a wearable device. Every pass, every run, and every touch of the ball is electronically recorded.
Referee's View
Just in time for the World Cup, the popular RefCam is getting a major AI-powered upgrade.
The RefCam brings viewers right onto the field. It is mounted on the referee and thus shows the referee’s current point of view. For the 2026 World Cup, this feature—which is very popular with fans—will receive a significant upgrade.
Since the referee wears the RefCam directly on their body, the footage is often very shaky. This is where a new AI-powered stabilization software comes into play. It will largely eliminate the motion blur and shaky images caused by the referee’s movements and running.
This allows fans to experience the RefCam in a whole new way and feel like they’re right in the thick of the action, as if they were on the field themselves.
