Artificial intelligence emerged as one of the defining technologies of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, supporting coaches, match officials, broadcasters and tournament operators across the expanded 48-team competition.
The tournament provided a global testing ground for AI systems designed to process vast amounts of football data, improve refereeing technology and manage the operational demands of matches spread across 16 cities.
The most prominent deployment was FIFA AI Pro, an analytics platform developed by FIFA and official technology partner Lenovo.
All 48 participating teams used the platform, which searched millions of tournament data points and analysed more than 2,000 performance metrics.
Coaches and analysts could submit questions in natural language and receive reports, graphs, video footage and three-dimensional visualisations.
Giving every team advanced analytics
FIFA AI Pro was designed to make sophisticated match analysis accessible to every national team, not just wealthy football federations with large technical departments.
Analysts could use the platform to examine an opponent’s defensive structure, identify recurring patterns or retrieve footage of specific tactical situations. The system was used in 15 languages during the tournament, making it easier for teams to interact with complex data without requiring specialist programming knowledge.
The technology did not select teams or make tactical decisions independently. Its role was to organise information and present potentially useful insights, leaving coaches and analysts responsible for interpreting the results.
FIFA restricted the system to pre-match and post-match analysis rather than allowing coaches to consult it during live play. This helped preserve the human and competitive elements of in-game decision-making.
AI supports faster offside decisions
Artificial intelligence also played a part in the tournament’s semi-automated offside system.
All 1,248 registered players were scanned to create detailed digital avatars. These models helped the tracking system represent players’ body shapes more accurately and generate realistic 3D recreations of close offside incidents.
The official match ball contained a connected sensor that provided real-time information about its movement and the precise moment it was touched. This data could be combined with optical player tracking to help video officials determine whether an attacker was in an offside position.
AI assisted with tracking and visualisation, but the final ruling remained with the match officials. That distinction became important as VAR decisions continued to generate debate.
Criticism often focused less on the accuracy of the technology than on how human officials interpreted and applied the information. VAR officials had access to more than 40 camera feeds, but subjective decisions involving fouls, handballs and dangerous play could not be resolved by data alone.
Referee cameras transform broadcasts
AI was also used to improve footage from cameras worn by referees.
The Referee View system gave audiences a first-person perspective of the match, capturing the pace of play, conversations between players and the difficulty of making decisions in crowded areas.
Because footage recorded by a running referee can be unstable, AI-powered processing was used to reduce excessive shaking and improve image quality before the video reached broadcasters. FIFA described the system as a way of giving supporters a closer view of the action while also producing footage that could assist referee education.
The technology offered broadcasters another storytelling tool rather than replacing traditional camera angles.
Managing football’s biggest tournament
Some of the tournament’s most important AI applications operated away from the pitch.
An intelligent command centre brought together information from transport, ticketing, security, staffing, parking and venue operations. The system helped organisers identify emerging problems, including congestion at entrances, long food and beverage queues or pressure on transport services.
Operators could then redirect spectators, deploy additional staff or adjust resources before disruptions became more serious.
This demonstrated how major sporting events can function as test sites for technologies that may later be applied in airports, transport networks, concert venues and other complex environments.
Human oversight remains essential
The World Cup showed that AI’s most practical role in sport remains one of assistance rather than autonomy.
It allowed analysts to navigate enormous datasets, helped officials review marginal decisions, stabilised difficult broadcast footage and supported the operation of an event spanning three countries.
However, it did not remove human judgement or controversy. Coaches still had to decide how to use the information, officials remained accountable for decisions and tournament operators continued to manage the consequences of automated recommendations.
The 2026 World Cup therefore offered a broader lesson about AI adoption. The technology is most effective when it reduces repetitive work, makes complex information easier to understand and supports qualified people making the final decision.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in elite sport, trust will depend on transparent systems, consistent rules and clear boundaries between technological assistance and human authority.
PS: Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in extra time to take out the tournament.