Though the latest edition of the Men’s World Cup may be over, one difference fans might have noticed is the upgrades in technology, not just from previous World Cup tournaments, but from club level football as well. 

One use of technology used in this latest men’s world cup is advanced semi-automatic offside technology.  

FIFA have stated that for semi-automatic offsides to work, they have used 16 dedicated cameras, tracking a player and the ball position at 50 times a second, collecting 29 data points per player, per frame.  

Connecting in with ball data from optical tracking allows the officials to create a semi-automated alert for a large number of offside decisions.  

The difference between the advanced semi-automatic offside technology we have seen at this World Cup and the semi-automatic offside technology we saw in the 2022 Edition of the Men’s World Cup is that the automatic versions send an audio signal for the official to alert them of what FIFA calls ‘clear positional offsides’ has been committed, and a foul can be called. 

The intention of the semi-automatic offside technology is to speed up the play of the game and avoid any potential injuries that have occurred when the officials wait to call on a tight offside decision, as is what happened to Taiwo Awoniyi of Nottingham Forest in their game versus Leicester City on the 11th May 2025, at least according to his teammate OIa Aina in regard to the officials waiting to hold their flag. 

Another great technological innovation is 3D modelling that has been broadcast to viewers at home and in the stands. This technology is built upon data collection for the semi-automatic offside technology to build 3D models of the players and the ball. 

Outside of technology for officiating, one way teams are embracing technology is through data collection and analysis, and one clear way we can see that in knockout football is penalty shootouts. 

Researchers at the University of Queensland found that a team’s best penalty takers should usually shoot first. However, if a team is shooting second and its best taker is particularly psychologically resilient, they may be better suited to a later penalty.

Though some have suggested that going first in a shootout may provide an advantage by putting psychological pressure on the team shooting second, Opta analysts found no clear difference between going first and second in a shootout.

Even the amount of time a player waits between the referees’ whistle to them connecting with the football is analysed, with set-piece analyst Marcel Seifeddine presenting his research in an article for Total Football Analysis that shows a 10% drop in conversion rate when comparing players who waited over 5 seconds after the referees whistle, converting at 85%, compared to those who begin their run-up with 3 seconds.  

Technology is impacting football constantly with more improvements to technology updating the game in officiating, viewing and analysis, therefore affecting decision-making. 

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons