The World Cup's Tech Upgrade

The World Cup is almost over! 😭😭😭The technology FIFA is using behind the scenes is pretty cool. I didn't know half of it until I started looking it up, so I wanted to share.

The ball this year is called the Trionda, and it's not a normal ball. There's a chip inside it that tracks every touch and kick. If it fully crosses the goal line, the referee gets a buzz on their watch right away. It can also tell when the ball hits someone's hand, which makes handball calls way easier. The shot speeds you see pop up on the screen – that information is coming straight from the ball.

On top of that, FIFA scanned all 1,248 players in the tournament and made 3D avatars of them. Those avatars are what you see in offside replays. There are 16 cameras tracking every player on the field, and when you add in the sensor from the ball, the system builds a 3D picture in seconds showing if someone was offside or not.

They also upgraded the offside system this year. It's faster now because the info goes straight to the assistant refs on the field instead of going through the VAR room first. This means the flag goes up quicker, and players stop running on plays that are already dead.

The refs are wearing small body cameras this year, which is another World Cup first. It gives you the exact view the ref has while they are running around. There's even some AI thing that keeps the video from being shaky.

I know all this stuff isn't replacing the refs; it's supposed to help them. But honestly, from the couple of matches I've watched, I'm not sure if it's helping or if it's just making the game more complicated than what it used to be.