Football is famed for its simplicity, yet staging a World Cup or even a regular season game is no easy feat. In fact, after more than a hundred years of development, the sport is as much technology as it is boots and grass.
The game has always embraced change. The position of the goalkeeper appeared in 1872. Penalties arrived in 1891. An eternity later, in 1970, the referee started to carry red and yellow cards. Then, the “silver goal” brought chaos in 2002, lasting two whole years before disappearing.
In 2025/26, the English FA made nine changes to laws for next season, including a punishment for keepers holding the ball for more than eight seconds (Law 12).
Months of testing are usually behind each adjustment, usually on a smaller (or secret) level than the Premier League. This means that huge changes, like the Video Assistant Referee or VAR, appear to come from nowhere.
With the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada, and Mexico, new ground will be broken again. It’ll be the first tournament to have an upgraded field of 48 teams, and the first to have three host nations. The 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan is still the only time the competition was held in more than one country.
Referee body cams
There’s more than that, though. The 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup saw the introduction of referee body cameras. They were used again during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup to apparent success, as FIFA promised “more of this” at the World Cup.
FIFA plans to let broadcasters use footage from referees in live match feeds. This echoes the RefCam in rugby union, introduced more than a decade ago in 2012. The United States’ MLS already has experience with the tech.
The capabilities of live streaming have quietly upended both sport and regular entertainment over the past few years. Boxing wound up in Netflix’s domain, for example, with a controversial bout between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson in November 2024. Similarly, the World Cup and European Championship are easily streamed through tablets and mobile phones.
A growing fondness for live media from all angles has even touched on card games. Far from the late-night poker games on Channel 5, the Hippodrome Casino in London streams live tables from the brick-and-mortar site, letting visitors to its website play blackjack online. This places the dealer on webcam, too, increasing its authenticity.
New angles
It’s not easy to tell who the new referee body cam benefits the most. It’ll likely offer new angles on events for officials on the sidelines. Likewise, it’ll also bring fans to eye level on the field for arguably the first time. That’s arguably FIFA’s intention in letting broadcaster DAZN put it on TV.
A potentially controversial addition to the game at World Cup 2026 will be “semi-automated” offside tech. The offside rule has been one of the most frequently adjusted laws in football’s storied past. Yet, it’s proven a tough thing to get right.
The new offside tech was tested at the 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, so it should be all ready to go at next year’s event. As evidenced by past law changes, however, not all of them pass the hardest test.
World Cup 2026, the 23rd instalment of the long-running event, begins on June 11 2026.
