This World Cup, You Can Watch The Game Live Streaming

When you call in the 2026 World Cupyou’ll watch something you’ve never seen before: a top-flight meal happening on the court from the judge’s point of view.

The videos will include a remote view of the action with a small camera attached to the head of the official, as he sits near his temple. The images are scanned wirelessly at the broadcast station, where the video is digitized in real time and integrated into the television program.

If you’ve ever wanted to know what the game looks like from the stands – whether you want to learn how your favorite players or just criticize the ref’s calls – you’re in for a treat.

Ref cameras have been used in broadcasting for several years in major sports. The “ump view” is being used more and more on MLB broadcasts to give viewers a real feel for offensive speed and movement of pitches. Both the NFL and the NHL have made strides in using projection cameras to bring fans closer to the game, which it used to be until 2018. But when we get close enough to see the game from the director’s point of view, what we see is not alive. Advertisers show replays during live replays or during live broadcasts, but rarely as part of the live action.

Football matches lend themselves naturally to the idea of ​​a live camera. In televised sports, the main cameras are almost always zoomed in, so spectators spend most of the game away from the players. The ref cam provides speed changes, bringing the viewer into the field.

The original video replay is fed from the ref’s body cameras, both in English and in English. 2024 to try in the German Bundesliga, it was run late. It is widely used in the training and development of referees. But in March 2025, a The International Football Association Board (world football’s governing body) has approved the use of the ref cam on television, a first for the 2025 Club World Cup. And although it may seem a little different, the technical upgrade that FIFA and its partners have made to make the video live broadcast was essential.

The first challenge: reducing video latency. It takes time, less than a second, but enough time to notice – to ensure that there are no problems, the broadcasts are the best from the field officials to the stadium broadcasting stations. The cameras that the refs wear are not broadcast cameras with Ethernet connections. They have to radio each other across a stadium full of equipment and wireless cables.

Johannes Holzmüller, FIFA’s chief innovation officer, tells me that his organization has tested several wireless data networks in several locations, including World Cup venues like Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. They settled on a unique 5G solution that wireless provider Verizon says uses wireless bands for data.

Eliminating the “jitter,” or the constant and sometimes pathological movement produced by the camera on the umpire’s temple as he runs, stops, and bends to follow the ball, was very difficult.

“(Broadcasters) were telling us that they like to use (the light camera) often, but especially when the referee is running or running, the game was very shaky,” says Holzmüller.

This would not be possible for a real World Cup broadcast, so FIFA commissioned its technology partner Lenovo to develop an AI-assisted program to reduce the jitter to make it possible.

Just defining this jitter and how much it should be associated with has been difficult in the beginning. No one wants to watch footage from a camera blaring everywhere, but viewers won’t enjoy well-edited, impossible-to-watch movies where everything is as smooth as a video game. How do you find sweet spots, then train programs to maintain them?