As one might expect in a World Cup tournament featuring 48 nations, a 50 per cent increase from its last edition, the infrastructure required to stage it — from the action on the pitch to the technical operations, officiating, and production — would also be at an unprecedented level. In that regard, the role of technology invariably takes centre stage. 

The 2026 World Cup kicked off on Thursday, with co-hosts Mexico defeating South Africa. Games have been trickling in since, but almost as compelling as the football itself has been the tech tools in play across North America. These infrastructures run from the ball itself through to enhanced referee decision-making systems and more. They have been revolutionary so far, but how they are being used and what they are actually changing is the real story.

Below is a breakdown of the key tech upgrades.

The ‘Trionda’ Smart Ball

🌟 Trionda 🌟#WeAre26 #FIFAWorldCup

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) October 3, 2025

So named from the Spanish words for “three waves”, in honour of the first time three countries are uniting to host the Mundial, the Trionda smart ball boasts several key performance innovations never before seen in the game.

The ball is AI-enabled and fitted with built-in sensors that gather data from tracking systems around the stadium, monitor every movement of the ball and send precise information to the Video Assistant Referee system in real time. This enhances match officials’ decision-making, particularly in offside situations.

The sensor in question is a 500Hz motion sensor chip, which means it can capture data at a remarkable rate of 500 times per second. It goes without saying that the technological sophistication of the Trionda ball does not, in any way, impede its primary function, as its iconography and design remain true to the aesthetics the players are used to.

The Referee’s Digital Twin

Having been tested at the 2025 Club World Cup and various youth tournaments over the past months, players’ AI-generated three-dimensional avatars are already proving useful to referees at the 2026 World Cup. Created from 360-degree high-resolution scans of all 1,248 players by FIFA’s technology partner, Lenovo, these digital models help referees and VAR operators reconstruct plays in ways that flat video footage simply cannot.

The technology allows officials to model the position of a defending player’s arm, the trajectory of the ball, and the precise moment of contact, all in three dimensions. In situations where fractions of a second and centimetres matter, that added layer of visualisation can prove decisive.

Advanced Semi-Automated Offside Technology

Semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) has been used in football for years, but the advanced version deployed for this year’s Mundial guarantees faster calls.

Unlike the previous system, which only alerted officials when a player was more than 50cm offside, the upgraded version does the work when a player is more than 10cm offside, notifying officials through a real-time audio alert sent directly to their earpieces rather than waiting for communication through the VAR chain.

The limitation is that it can only be used for positional offside decisions and not for subjective calls involving interference with play or an opponent.

What Happens to All This Data?

This is the most technology-saturated World Cup yet, but it is, like the 22 editions before it, a tournament that will ultimately be decided by what football has always been decided by: a human referee’s calls, skill, tactical understanding, individual brilliance, and the occasional piece of luck. The machines are simply better at watching it now.

Technology and AI are not subsuming the sport, at least not this time around. Every decision that matters, including those informed by the processing of data generated from the systems mentioned above, will still be made by the appointed match officials. The difference is that there will be greater transparency and speed, where both were previously constrained by the limits of human perception and processing power.