[Saba Sports News] Following FIFA’s announcement of new offside technology set to be deployed at the 2026 World Cup, delayed flag-raising is poised to become a thing of the past. FIFA has rolled out advanced semi-automated offside technology for video assistant referees to speed up decision-making, enabling assistant referees to flag offside offences without waiting for an attacking phase to conclude. A real-time audio alert will be transmitted to assistant referees whenever a player is offside by more than 10 centimetres. Earlier iterations of the technology trialled at the Club World Cup and continental tournaments only triggered referee notifications for offside margins exceeding 50 centimetres. Referees nonetheless retain authority over when to raise the flag and halt play. They may hold off from signalling if they suspect a technical malfunction. FIFA, however, states the system is fitted with an array of fail-safe mechanisms designed to avoid erroneous rulings.
The editor believes that this means digital scanning models need to be created for all 1,248 players from the 26-man squads of the 48 participating teams. Each player will step into a scanning booth for the scan, which takes just one second and only needs to be completed once alongside pre-tournament official photoshoots.