AI at the World Cup: smarter tactics, healthy players, safer crowds – but new risks
AI at the World Cup: smarter tactics, healthy players, safer crowds – but new risks
Publish Date: 2026-06-04 20:24:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
With 48 teams and 104 games across 16 host cities and three countries (the United States, Canada and Mexico), this year’s FIFA World Cup is projected to be the biggest sporting event ever in terms of attendance, revenue and global viewership.
It also promises to be the most technologically advanced, and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular will touch almost all aspects of the tournament.
This reflects a growing use of AI in soccer and across elite sport, with tools being applied not only to optimise athlete performance but also enhance match officiating, event security and fan experience.
Let’s look at how AI will be used in the World Cup, who may benefit and what risks could emerge.
Read more:
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How it will be used on the pitch
In our review of AI use in soccer we found various ways it can assist on the pitch:
- tools to support player, team and match evaluation
- forecasting of match outcomes and in-game events (such as expected goals and assists, corners, passes, opposition tactics)
- monitoring athlete workload
- injury prediction and detection
- talent scouting.
At the World Cup, coaches will use AI alongside more conventional data to inform how they approach each game, including what opposition strengths they need to negate and what weaknesses they can exploit.
Similarly, high performance staff will use AI to monitor player health and wellbeing, and forecast potential injuries.
The dreaded penalty shoot-out is one area where AI will have a direct influence. Teams will use AI to synthesise historical data to provide insights on goalkeepers and penalty takers’ likely strategies.
A key benefit is the speed at which these analyses can be undertaken. What used to take days of old-fashioned human legwork can now be done in hours, even for entire squads.
Should a game go to a shootout, AI could very…
