Barwegan Explains 2026 Soccer Offside Rule Change
The 2026 World Cup will be the first soccer offside rule test at the tournament level to use semi-automated offside technology, and assistant referee Micheal Barwegan says the system helps without replacing the job. He called the technology “not perfect,” even as it is set to reshape how officials handle tight calls.
Barwegan and the Canadian crew
Barwegan is part of the first all-Canadian officiating team in men’s World Cup history, working alongside referee Drew Fischer and fellow assistant referee Lyes Arfa. The three have worked together over the past two years, including at the 2024 Olympics and last summer’s Club World Cup.
That shared run matters because the new offside system still leaves assistant referees doing their normal work while play continues when a call is not clear. Barwegan said, “As such, our job stays exactly the same.”
How the system signals offside
The technology uses a dozen cameras tracking player movement at a rate of 50 stills per second. As of last summer’s Club World Cup, a player is clearly offside when the gap between defender and attacker is more than 10cm.
When the system is absolutely certain, it sends assistant referees an automated voice message of “offside, offside, offside” through the earpiece. When the call is closer, it says “delay.” If there is no clear offside, the system sends no message at all.
Barwegan said the system does not make a decision until the offside-position player touches the ball, which gives him a brief window to clear the play to the referee before another decision has to be made. “When the ball gets played and a player’s running, I am quick to say [whether] he’s going to be offside or he’s good, and I will clear it to the referee in his earpiece before another decision has to be made. The computer has to think, and it’s super fast, but [on the field] it feels like forever.”
World Cup debut at 2026
Barwegan first used the technology last summer at the Club World Cup during Botafogo’s win over Paris Saint-Germain. He said, “It is really, really good – I like to say I’m a little bit better – but I think that’s purely just on a technical side with how it’s programmed.”
He also said, “It’s tracking every player, and it’s got points [on each of those players] that it’s tracking … so I’m going to say it is as perfect as an assistant referee, if not better, on your normal run-of-the-mill offside calls. Its accuracy is amazing at that.” For the 2026 World Cup, that means the first tournament using the system will also be the one where officials must keep matching its speed on the field while the earpiece handles the clearest cases.
