Major Changes for Club World Cup 2025: Body Cam, Enhanced Offside Detection and Other Improvements as FIFA Looks to Step Up Use of Technology in Mega Event
In December 2023, FIFA announced a string of changes to the Club World Cup that not only expanded the number of participating clubs but also greatly increased the Prize Money, making it one of the most lucrative football competitions in recent times, with all the proceeds heading back to participating teams.
Speaking to The Athletic in March 2024, Nicolas Evans, FIFA’s leading technology problem solver, revealed that FIFA also planned major innovations that would take the involvement of Technology in football to greater heights.
Those technological alterations processed over the years will be used for the first time in a major competition as the Fifa World Cup hits the United States of America on June 14th 2025.
Major Changes for the Club World Cup 2025
Use of Body Camera
DAZN is a British Sports and entertainment streaming platform that is the exclusive global broadcaster of the FIFA Club World Cup and will be responsible for the footage from the Body Cam attached to Referees beamed to over 200 countries worldwide.
FIFA believes this new Camera angle perspective of the referees will not only give Television and Online viewers a fresh experience, it will also help create new guidelines for the use of such Cameras in football for the future.
Footage From Referees Review Live in Stadium
Viewers at home will not only be the ones benefiting from the live experience as spectators in the Stadium will, for the first time, be exposed to live interaction as the Referee reviews on-field decisions while examining the monitor. It is believed this ensures the fans in the stadium are carried along the entire process, making room for transparency.
Fans will not be allowed to listen to conversations between Referees but will be able to see what the Officials see while looking at the monitor to review on-field decisions.
Use of Advanced semi-automated offside technology
Following successful trials in Intercontinental cups and several youth competitions, the advanced Semi-Automated offside technology will be used for the first time at the FIFA Club World Cup. The aim is to ensure lightning-quick decisions on obvious offside decisions.
Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi was placed in an induced Coma a few weeks ago following an injury he sustained while challenging for a ball after being offside, but the assistant referee failed to raise the flag in doubt.
Now with the multiple Cameras, a sensor in the ball and artificial intelligence that tracks player positions and the ball, Real-time alerts will be sent to match officials in cases of obvious and clear offside, preventing delays and avoiding worst-case scenarios avoidable injury.
This does not mean an end to the involvement of VAR, which still remains important, especially in less obvious situations needing the extensive intervention of VAR.
Substitution in the Club World Cup 2025
Another newly introduced technological innovation is the use of Tablets for Substitution in place of the manual way of recording player subs. According to FIFA, each team will receive a tablet before kickoff, which will enable all parties to digitally register substitutions, and everyone involved is in the Know as regards the number of players removed and introduced.
Artificial intelligence-driven data
For the first time at a major tournament, FIFA will use algorithms developed by Football Technology Centre AG, its joint venture with Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd, to automatically collect the majority of live event data based on the available tracking data.
FIFA hopes to create a better fan experience with the use of AI, personalising the fan experience either through a unique Camera angle or Match analysis.
Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, believes this technological innovation embraced by FIFA is proof of FIFA’s commitment to enhancing fans’ experience at major football competitions while ensuring transparency and accountability in the entire process
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