VAR and Offside Tech at World Cup 2026

In 1998, every offside was a linesman raising a flag and guessing. At Qatar 2022, VAR took about 70 seconds on average to confirm the same call.

This year, if a player is more than 10 centimetres offside, the assistant referee hears an alert in their earpiece before the ball even reaches them — a 28-year journey from guesswork to millisecond precision. But the technology still has lines it cannot cross.

The short version (20 seconds)

• The new SAOT alerts the linesman directly (in 2022 it went to the VAR room), triggers at 10cm, and uses 16 cameras per stadium
• The Trionda ball carries a sensor reading 500 times per second to pinpoint the kick
• VAR expanded to five categories (from four) — adding corners, wrong second yellows, and mistaken identity across both teams
• Referees explain decisions on a mic + body cams in every match, a World Cup first
• The ~25-second target is FIFA’s own expectation, not an audited figure, and there is no official time cap

How SAOT works

Two things work together. Sixteen tracking cameras in each stadium capture every player’s skeleton in real time (over 150 million data points a match), and the Trionda ball’s embedded sensor reads its motion 500 times per second to mark the exact “kick point” to the millisecond (Inside FIFA). The AI combines the two to draw the offside line instantly.

What’s genuinely new in 2026: if the system is confident a player is more than 10cm offside, it sends an audio alert straight to the assistant referee’s earpiece (in 2022 it went only to the VAR room). The flag goes up sooner, cutting the phase where play continues when it shouldn’t — which FIFA says also lowers injury risk from late challenges during a held flag (adidas).

How fast — and the number to read carefully

The figure quoted most is “25 seconds on average” per offside review, against about 70 at Russia 2018. But read it correctly: 25 seconds is FIFA’s target, not an independently audited measurement (BBC Sport), and no law sets a “time cap” on a review — IFAB only says VAR should intervene when it can do so swiftly (The Guardian).

In practice, clear offsides (over 10cm) should be much faster because the flag goes up at once. For tighter margins (10cm or less) the system sends a “delay” message and the assistant holds the flag for a human review — because FIFA admits the tech “will still struggle with the closest offside situations.”

VAR expands to five categories

Before 2026, VAR reviewed four categories. IFAB has widened it to five (IFAB):

Category	Covers
Goal / no goal	Includes offside, fouls, handball in the build-up
Penalty / no penalty	Includes foul location and handball
Red card	New: now includes a clearly wrong second yellow
Mistaken identity	Widened: the wrong player of either team
Clearly incorrect corner	New: only if fixed at once before the restart

On top of that, in late May 2026 IFAB added that VAR can check a clear attacking-team foul before the ball is in play at set pieces, if it directly affects a goal, penalty or card.

What fans in the stadium will notice

The change that most affects the viewing experience: referees explain decisions on a microphone after a review that changes a call (a disallowed goal, a penalty, a red card). The audio goes to both the stadium PA and the broadcast — the first time a World Cup has done it at every match, alongside referee body cameras used in every game (The Athletic).

It’s already live: in the opener, Mexico vs South Africa, the referee used the mic for the first time (and went viral because the explanation was hard to follow) — a sign the tech is more transparent, but the communication still needs practice.

What the technology still cannot do

This is the part most people get wrong. SAOT is good at positional offside only. What it can’t decide (by FIFA’s own admission):

• Interference with play — an offside player who doesn’t touch the ball but blocks the keeper’s view still needs a human call
• Very tight margins (10cm or less) — the system sends a “delay” for a human to review
• Players on the ground or bunched — skeleton tracking gets unreliable, accuracy drops
• Not covered at all — fouls, handball, penalties, red cards remain conventional, human-led VAR

And worth knowing: FIFA has never published an accuracy figure in centimetres or millimetres for the body-tracking system. The 10cm number is a trigger threshold, not the system’s precision — two different things.

The takeaway — more accurate, faster, not seamless

World Cup 2026 is the most tech-officiated tournament ever: offsides are quicker, and mics and body cams make it more transparent. But the lines it can’t cross — interference, the tightest margins, interpretation — are still a human’s job. The technology cuts the guesswork; it doesn’t remove judgement.

Read on to understand the tournament in full:

1. How the 48-team format and its rounds work, in the 48-team format explained
2. Check fixtures and kickoff times at the World Cup 2026 schedule in Thai time
3. Browse every tie and result on the full match schedule

Next time you see a referee touch an ear and draw a rectangle in the air, you’ll know that behind it are 16 cameras and a sensor reading 500 times a second — but the final call is still made by a human.