The most prestigious football event, the FIFA World Cup 2026, will make history in the use of refereeing technology. Through a strategic collaboration between FIFA and Lenovo, the Semi-Automated Offside Technology (SAOT) system will now be enhanced with three-dimensional (3D) avatars of every competing player.
This technology works by performing precise body scans of players before the tournament begins. Using advanced generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), the system can accurately reconstruct the dimensions and proportions of an athlete's body into a digital model. An efficient scanning process, taking less than one second, is key to creating a unique digital representation for each player.
As an end-to-end solutions provider, Lenovo is responsible for managing the entire lifecycle of these digital assets, from scanning to integration into the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system. It is important to note that this technology serves as an additional data source for FIFA, aiming to present clearer and more accessible visualizations of offside decisions for billions of fans around the world.
Art Hu, Chief Information Officer of Lenovo Solutions & Services Group, revealed that this innovation is the result of long-term development to meet the need for precision on the pitch. This approach ensures that every replay is not just technical data, but an accurate visual representation of a player's position on the field.
Before being deployed on the World Cup stage in North America, this technology successfully underwent field testing at the FIFA Intercontinental Cup 2025 in Qatar. With the integration of this technology, FIFA is confident in enhancing transparency and the quality of match officials' decision-making during the tournament from June to July 2026.
