Fifa to create 3D player avatars for World Cup

Fifa has announced that AI-enabled 3D avatars will be created of every player competing at this summer's football World Cup.

It's hoped they will help improve video assistant referee - or VAR - decisions.

The process will see more than 1,200 footballers from all national teams taking part in the tournament have a digital scan taken of their bodies.

The organisation's president, Gianni Infantino, said the avatars would ensure precise player ­identification and tracking - and result in more accurate offside decisions.

Fifa plans to create a digital scan of all 1,248 players from the 48 national teams that will take part in the tournament.

Each player will enter a chamber to be scanned - a process it claims should take just one second.

Fifa say the scan will only need to be done once during the players' pre-tournament photo shoots and that it will capture "highly accurate body-part dimensions."

They will then be used to make AI-enabled 3D avatars for each player, to help give more accurate offside decisions.

Fifa hopes that by taking accurate scans of each player it will be able to "track players reliably during fast or obstructed movements" and says final decisions will be "displayed more realistically and in a more engaging way".

The technology was tested in Fifa's Intercontinental Cup at the end of last year.

Fifa also announced last month that it was testing new technology which can discover if the ball goes out of play before a goal is scored.

It has also developed 'real-time 3D recreation' to make line-of-sight offside decisions.

The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

It's the first time in history that the tournament will be hosted by three different nations.

The tournament will start on 11 June in Mexico City and end on 19 July in New Jersey.

It is being expanded to include 48 teams, and as a result it will last a record 39 days.

The new format will also feature 12 four-team groups and a last-32 knockout round.

England and Scotland have already qualified but there's a nervous springtime wait ahead for Wales and Northern Ireland fans.

Both teams have entered the European play-offs, where a total of 16 teams will battle it out in March for four slots at the tournament.

Both home nations sides will have to win those games for a chance to progress - but if they do - they will end up having to play each other in the final for a place at the tournament.