As South Africa’s Bafana Bafana face hosts Mexico tonight in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup, tournament organisers have deployed a suite of advanced technologies aimed at improving officiating accuracy and enhancing the fan experience.
The tournament spans three host countries – US, Mexico and Canada – featuring 48 teams, and will engage an estimated six billion fans.
South Africa’s match against the hosts tonight at 9pm is a repeat of the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup where the countries drew 1-1 in Johannesburg – their only meeting at the World Cup.
According to FIFA, the 2026 World Cup will see the expanded use of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered officiating systems, connected-ball technology and upgraded video review tools, as football’s governing body seeks to reduce errors and speed up decision-making during matches.
Among the key technologies being used is FIFA’s enhanced semi-automated offside technology, which combines AI, player-tracking cameras and ball sensors to identify offside situations in real-time.
The system is designed to provide match officials with faster alerts when a player is in an offside position, reducing delays associated with traditional video reviews.
The technology relies on a network of cameras installed throughout stadiums to monitor player movements and generate precise positional data. Information from the system is transmitted to the video assistant referee (VAR) team, which can quickly verify potential infringements before communicating with the on-field referee.
FIFA has also introduced an upgraded connected match ball equipped with an internal sensor that records movement data hundreds of times per second.
The technology enables officials to determine the exact moment a player makes contact with the ball, providing critical information for offside and handball decisions.
Smart tournament
According to FIFA, the smart ball works alongside the offside detection system, allowing officials to synchronise ball-contact data with player-position information to improve the accuracy of rulings.
VAR technology remains a central feature of the tournament, with officials using multiple camera angles and replay systems to review goals, penalty incidents, direct red-card offences and cases of mistaken identity.
In a further effort to improve transparency, FIFA is using advanced graphics and three-dimensional player models to explain VAR decisions to spectators inside stadiums and television audiences worldwide.
The football governing body says the technologies are intended to support referees rather than replace them, with final decisions continuing to rest with match officials.
The tournament is also expected to serve as a platform for testing additional innovations, including enhanced data analytics and new broadcast technologies designed to provide viewers with greater insight into matches.
As the world’s attention turns to the opening fixture between South Africa and Mexico, the latest technological systems will come under scrutiny alongside the players, with organisers hoping the innovations will help deliver a smoother and more accurate World Cup.
Supporting partners
Computing company Lenovo recently announced it is delivering a near real-time AI-powered infrastructure platform for the World Cup, to enable ultra-low-latency internet protocol television video distribution in addition to the traditional cable and satellite broadcast, intelligent content delivery and mission-critical decision-making across the event ecosystem and operations.
As FIFA’s official technology partner, Lenovo will deploy servers at the International Broadcast Centre in Dallas, Texas, to help deliver the computing power, devices and AI-driven solutions needed to bring every moment of every match to global audiences and support the most expansive broadcast operation in FIFA World Cup history.
Beyond broadcast, Lenovo’s technology will be deployed at FIFA’s Technology Command Centre in Miami and the Tournament Operation Centre for the duration of FIFA World Cup 2026.
This hub serves as the central “mission control” for the World Cup, where all the technology powering the games is monitored and managed in near real-time by experienced engineers and FIFA management.
Last week, Salesforce announced the FIFA World Cup will deploy Slack to coordinate workforce management across the 16 host cities in Mexico, Canada and the US. Slack will serve as an operational surface for workforce, apps and AI-powered workflows to work together in real-time, says the company.
Locally, DStv and MTN SA yesterday formed a partnership to improve access to FIFA World Cup 2026 matches for South African fans.
Under the deal, MTN customers will receive free streaming data with each recharge, enabling them to watch all matches via DStv Stream.
Cyber security concerns
Meanwhile, as the world braces for the tournament to kick off, cyber criminals are also lurking.
New research from Check Point Exposure Management reveals the event is creating a high-risk cyber and financial crime environment, with attackers already staging infrastructure ahead of kick-off to exploit the tournament’s global scale, rapid transaction growth and urgency-driven behaviour.
According to the company, the findings highlight a significant trend – attackers are strategically pre-positioned across financial systems, travel infrastructure and betting ecosystems, ready to activate at peak moments when disruption, fraud and visibility have maximum impact.
Check Point notes the financial ecosystem around any mega-event is exactly the kind of environment threat actors prefer.
It says surging transaction volumes, unfamiliar merchants, compressed purchasing windows and international flows all reduce the scrutiny that normally slows fraud down.
Around this tournament, the cyber security firm points out that event-driven crypto scams are scaling.
Tokens like $WORLDCUP exhibit the hallmarks of rug-pull schemes – no identifiable team, no independent security audit, no FIFA affiliation, and aggressive social promotion timed to exploit pre-tournament excitement, it explains.
Football experts are warning supporters around the world to remain cautious when buying 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets online, as growing global demand for matches is expected to create major opportunities for ticket scammers and fraudulent resale sellers.
The concerns follow reports that more than 500 million ticket requests were submitted for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, underlining the unprecedented worldwide demand expected around the tournament.
For many supporters, attending the competition will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something experts warn scammers increasingly try to exploit during high-demand sporting events.
The experts say periods of intense ticket competition often create ideal conditions for fake resale listings, social media scams and fraudulent online sellers targeting fans searching for last-minute access.
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