Introducing the "Advanced Semi-Automated Offside System" to enhance the 2026 World Cup and address two major issues.
On 3 June 2026, BBC Sport reported that the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) will implement new technology at the 2026 World Cup finals, held from 11 June to 19 July, to improve refereeing.
This technology is the Advanced Semi-Automated Offside system, which will be used by VAR referees to speed up offside decisions, allowing assistant referees to raise their flags immediately without waiting for the play to end.
- The system will send real-time alerts to assistant referees if a player is offside by more than 10 centimeters.
- Previous technology tested at the Club World Cup and Intercontinental Cup alerted referees only when players were offside by more than 50 centimeters.
- The referee remains responsible for deciding when to raise the flag and stop the game and may lower the flag if an error is suspected.
- However, FIFA stated that this technology includes several safeguards to prevent such mistakes.
Nevertheless, the system still cannot detect offside at the closest distances and has limitations when players are on the ground or when several players are very close together.
The system applies only to positional offside and cannot be used for subjective decisions that require interpretation of whether a player interfered with an opponent without touching the ball.
FIFA hopes this system will reduce two main problems: frustration among fans and players, and the risk of injury from unnecessary play caused by delayed offside flagging.
In May 2025, Taiwo Awoniyi, Nottingham Forest's forward, was affected after hitting the goalpost and losing consciousness when the assistant referee raised the offside flag late.
FIFA also confirmed it will create AI-based 3D avatars of all players to improve decision accuracy, meaning digital scans of all 1,248 players from 48 countries, each submitting 26 players, will be made.
Each player will enter a scanning room where the process takes only one second and needs to be done only once before the tournament's photography sessions.
