Background
The FIFA World Cup 2026 — the largest in the tournament's history, with 48 teams and 1,248 players across the United States, Canada and Mexico — has put technology at the centre of how the competition is officiated and watched. As FIFA's Official Technology Partner, Lenovo is supplying the AI systems behind a set of broadcast and officiating innovations, the most visible of which is a fleet of AI-generated 3D player avatars.
3D player avatars
Every one of the tournament's 1,248 players is digitally scanned to create a precise 3D model that captures their individual body-part dimensions and proportions. Each scan takes roughly one second, and the resulting avatar functions as a digital twin of the player — accurate enough to serve as an additional data source for player tracking. The models are built using advanced generative AI and real-world player data, and the underlying system reliably tracks players even during fast or partially obstructed movement.
Broadcast and officiating
The avatars are rendered as 3D animations to make complex officiating decisions clearer in real time. For offside calls in particular, FIFA's semi-automated offside technology can present the decision as a realistic 3D recreation rather than a flat camera freeze-frame, giving stadium and broadcast audiences a more legible view of why a call was made. The same models also feed additional input to match officials during their offside decision-making, contributing to a broader effort to improve transparency and trust in officiating.
Infrastructure
The pipeline runs on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR635 V3 servers, which handle live video ingestion, processing and distribution across FIFA's venues and underpin the rapid turnaround of highlights and multi-angle replays for a global audience.
Testing and rollout
The avatar system was trialled at the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup in Qatar, where players from CR Flamengo and Pyramids FC were scanned for their match, before being rolled out across all three host nations for the June–July 2026 tournament.
A wider AI programme
The avatars sit alongside other AI tools at the tournament. Football AI Pro, a generative-AI knowledge assistant built on FIFA's bespoke Football Language model, gives all 48 teams the same pre- and post-match analytical capabilities — though it is barred from use during live play — while an AI-stabilised "Referee View" smooths on-pitch referee camera footage to deliver a clearer first-person broadcast perspective.
