FIFA creates avatars for the players present at the 2026 World Cup! » Everything has to do with offside
Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published on Thursday, 08 January 2026, 15:28 / Updated on Thursday, 08 January 2026 15:30
Avatars for every player in the 2026 World Cup will be 3D and created with the help of artificial intelligence.
Upon arrival in America, for the 2026 World Cup, each of the 1,248 players from the 26 groups of the 48 participating teams will enter a specially prepared room to be digitally scanned. The whole process would only take a second and only needs to be done once during the pre-tournament photo session.
The example from the Premier League, with Ruben Dias in the foreground
The goal? FIFA said the scan “captures highly accurate measurements of body parts” to make more accurate offside decisions. That means that umpires present at the final tournament “will be able to track players reliably during fast or obstructed movements” and that the final decisions “will be displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way”.
Earlier this season, there was a much talked about controversy in the Premier League when a goal scored by Newcastle against Manchester City was disallowed. Ruben Dias appeared to jump in the semi-automatic offside graphics and did not match the images shown on TV during the match.
The technology has already been tested at the Intercontinental Cup in December
FIFA hopes that through these precise scans of each player, the way these decisions are presented to supporters will be greatly improved. The technology was tested at the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, when players from Flamengo and Pyramids FC were scanned ahead of the live match in December.
FIFA announced last month that it is testing new technology that can determine if the ball is out of bounds before a goal is scored. It has also developed so-called “real-time 3D recreation” to make correct decisions in borderline offside cases.
