How drones, spider cams and AI will bring World Cup to your TV
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Updated / Tuesday, 2 Jun 2026 15:53
Expect to see more cable-suspended, gyro-stabilised spider cameras swooping above the action than in previous World Cups, perhaps even during penalty shootouts. Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Analysis: This year's tournament will feature more teams, more matches and more cameras and broadcasting technology than ever before
By Joe Towns, Cardiff Metropolitan University
When players arrive in the US this year for their World Cup pre-tournament media shoot, they will each step into a scanning chamber to capture their precise body-part dimensions and create 3D, AI avatars. Why? Because even when you're the biggest sport in the world, you can’t afford to stand still.
This year’s Fifa World Cup will feature more teams (48), more matches (104) and more cameras than ever. Describing the scale of the tournament, Fifa boss Gianni Infantino told fans to expect the equivalent of "104 Super Bowls".
Infantino wants to "break" America, where soccer has never reached the same levels of mainstream popularity as it has in the rest of the world. The last time the World Cup was held there was 1994. Singer Diana Ross missed a penalty in the opening ceremony, Italian player Roberto Baggio missed one in the final and England missed out altogether. Memorable, but it didn’t capture American hearts.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, why the World Cup final will have a half-time show this year
This summer five million paying customers will buy eye-wateringly expensive tickets to watch games play out in stadia across host countries Canada, the US and Mexico. It’s predicted that up to six billion will engage with the competition around the world on screens, phones and tablets, in bars, bookmakers, homes and fan zones.
Sport exists in the same ultra-competitive attention economy as other forms of entertainment. If Fifa want to get inside the minds and mobile phones of audiences, then they’ll need to think visually in a broadcast sense, but also vertically, in terms of creating content which will cut through online.
At the recent Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy, the drone cameras caught eyes and stole the show. Drones worked well buzzing after skiers down a fixed-track mountain course or chasing skaters around an ice rink but they won’t work in stadiums where the unpredictability of the action means a drone could get hit by the ball.
From DWS News, high-speed FPV drones revolutionises Winter Olympics' coverage
However, this World Cup will have cable-suspended, gyro-stabilised spider cameras swooping above the action. Expect to see them used more on the live action than in previous World Cups, perhaps even during penalty shootouts.
At every game there will be 45 to 50 cameras focused on the action including pole cams, cable cams, 360 cams and one new camera taking you closer to the action than ever before. "Referee view" will allow audiences to see what the referee sees. Cameras mounted on the referee, trialled at the Fifa Club World Cup last year, will show us what the ref can – and can't – see. These points of view are not new to sports broadcasting (they are common in rugby), but the issue in the past has been the stability of the vision. For this competition, broadcasters will use AI stabilisation software to improve the smoothness of the shots.
The AI World Cup
AI-enabled 3D avatars will also assist VAR decisions by ensuring precision around player ID and tracking. This will drive semi-automated offside technology, so you’ll get greater quality images and faster, fairer decisions.
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