Fifa has unveiled a series of new technological tools set to transform how offside decisions are made at the 2026 World Cup.
The governing body will introduce advanced semi-automated offside for video assistant referees, which should make decisions significantly faster and allow assistant referees to raise their flags earlier.
A real-time audio alert will be sent to the assistant referee if a player is more than 10cm offside, a major improvement on previous versions of the system.
Earlier versions tested at the Club World Cup and the Intercontinental Cup only notified officials when a player was greater than 50cm offside.
The official will remain responsible for deciding when to raise the flag and stop play, retaining human oversight within the system.
Fifa says a series of failsafe measures are built into the technology to prevent errors, though officials may keep the flag down if they suspect a malfunction has occurred.
The technology will still be unable to detect the closest offside calls and faces limitations when players are on the ground or positioned too close together.
It can only be applied to positional offside decisions and not to subjective calls requiring interpretation around a player’s interference with an opponent without touching the ball.
Fifa hopes the new system will ease frustration felt by supporters and players alike, and reduce injury risk caused by needless passages of play when an offside flag is eventually raised.
The issue of delayed flags became particularly prominent in May 2025, when Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi had to be placed in an induced coma after colliding with a post while an assistant held off raising an offside flag.
Fifa also confirmed that AI-enabled, life-like 3D avatars of every player will be created to improve the accuracy of offside decisions across the tournament.
The process will involve creating digital scans of all 1,248 players across the 26-man squads of all 48 competing nations.
Each player will enter a scanning chamber during their pre-tournament photo shoot, with the process taking just one second and only needing to be completed once.
Enhanced and clearer offside animations will then be used throughout the World Cup as a direct result of this scanning process.
Fifa has additionally approved technology capable of determining whether the ball crossed the touchline or byline before a goal was scored, producing a 3D animation similar to existing goalline technology.
In February, Aston Villa had a goal disallowed against Brentford in contentious circumstances when it was unclear whether the ball had gone out of play.
The chip inside the ball will also indicate which player last touched it, giving VAR officials new powers to verify whether corner kick decisions were correct.
Fifa has further expanded its Real-time 3D Recreation system to accelerate and clarify line-of-sight judgements for offside calls, offering two virtual feeds replicating the perspectives of both goalkeepers.
Several line-of-sight offside incidents this season raised questions about whether a goalkeeper’s view had been obstructed, and the expanded tool is intended to give VAR officials a clearer means of making those calls.
