Semi-automated offside technology will debut at the 2026 World Cup, promising to streamline one of soccer's most contentious calls. Twelve cameras will track player movement 50 times per second, feeding real-time data to officials through their earpieces.
Micheal Barwegan has already gotten his hands dirty with the system. The Canadian assistant referee used it last summer during the Club World Cup, including Botafogo's stunning upset over Paris Saint-Germain. This summer, he made history as part of the first all-Canadian officiating crew in men's World Cup history, working alongside referee Drew Fischer and fellow assistant Lyes Arfa.
The technology operates on a clear-cut principle: cameras assign tracking points to every player and calculate offside status the moment an attacker lines up beyond the second-to-last defender. When the gap exceeds 10 centimeters, the system broadcasts "offside, offside, offside" through the assistant referee's earpiece in an automated voice. Tighter margins trigger a "delay" message, giving officials a heads-up that the call remains marginal. No message means the play is either legal or too tangled to judge from the data alone.
Barwegan doesn't treat the tech as a shortcut. "The semi-automated system is not perfect," he said. "Our job stays exactly the same."
What makes his role critical is timing. The automated system waits until an attacker actually touches the ball before finalizing its determination. Barwegan, meanwhile, can relay a judgment to Fischer before that moment arrives, cutting through the machine's processing lag. "The computer has to think, and it's super fast, but on the field it feels like forever," he explained.
Barwegan's path to the World Cup touches on the kind of dedication soccer demands from its officials. A math teacher and board game enthusiast, he picked up refereeing at age 12 to earn spending money. Within five years, he realized he preferred calling games to playing them, a shift that only deepened as he discovered his appetite for the work. "I like engaging my brain. I like reading rules, deciphering rules, and seeing how systems work together," he said.
By 2012, he was officiating professional matches. His older brother Brian also became a referee, eventually working high school and college games for 17 years. When Brian decided to retire in 2025, he made one unusual request: to have Micheal work as his assistant on his final match.
The logistics were tight. Micheal worked Toronto FC's 4-2 victory over Orlando City on a Saturday, then scrambled onto a flight to Alberta. He made it to the University of Lethbridge just in time to throw on a uniform for his brother's last game. "They still yelled at me non-stop," Micheal recounted. "I was doing a game in MLS 14 hours ago, guys. I know what offside is, I promise."
Author James Rodriguez: "Barwegan's willingness to lean on the tech without letting it dull his judgment is exactly what soccer needs as automation reshapes the game."
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