Whether it be the use of Hawkeye tracking in cricket or a snickometer in any game that involves a racket, technology these days has become an important part of any sporting event. Decisions made with these tools often end up deciding the outcome of a game.
That said, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is just around the corner, and plenty of advanced technologies will likely be used throughout the event. But one particular thing that I believe would be a topic of discussion among soccer fans would be the World Cup ball itself, which has been named Trionda.
What’s the logic behind the name ‘Trionda’?
Three different nations—Canada, Mexico, and the USA—are going to host this year’s FIFA World Cup. “Tri” in the word “Trionda” stands for three. The “Onda” part in the name is actually a Spanish word that means “waves” in English.
So basically, Trionda stands for three waves, hinting at three different color waves (red, green, and blue) that have been used in the design of the ball. These three colors pay homage to the three hosting nations.
What’s so special about this year’s FIFA World Cup ball
Three different colors used in Trionda. | Image by Adidas.
Trionda has been produced by Adidas, the company that has been making World Cup balls since 1970. The special thing about this year’s World Cup ball is that it uses connected ball technology that the company claims will help the referees and assist the VAR system in making accurate and quick decisions.
Basically, a 500 Hz motion sensor chip that weighs roughly 14 g has been installed on the side of the ball. The chip will instantly detect each touch and help in tracking every movement of the ball. From speed, spin, position, and trajectory, everything will be easily and accurately trackable in real time using the motion sensor.
This will ultimately assist the VAR system and help the officials to correctly call offside goals and detect fouls and handball offenses. I honestly believe this technology would really assist the referee when making tight offside decisions, as the motion sensor would accurately record the exact moment the ball was touched.
That said, it isn’t the first time that connected ball technology has been used in a FIFA World Cup. Al Rihal, the ball used in the last football World Cup, also used this technology, but the main difference this time is in the placement of the motion chip.
In Al Rihal, the chip was present in the exact center of the ball’s bladder, but as mentioned above, in Trionda, it’s placed at the side. While the exact reason behind the position shift hasn’t been disclosed, I believe this decision has been taken so that there’s enough space for the battery and the charging components. Yes, you read that right—the ball needs to be charged before it is used in the matches.
Trionda needs to be charged so it can be used
The connected ball technology used in Trionda needs to be charged before it can be used in the World Cup games. No, it doesn’t require any sort of USB-C or Apple Lightning cable for charging. Instead, the battery of the ball’s sensor is juiced up wirelessly via a specialized charging station.
The ball takes around 90 minutes to fully charge and then remains operational for nearly 6 hours. The sensors intelligently detect when the ball is off the field and then automatically switch to the hibernation mode to offer a slightly better battery backup.
Much of the guesswork would likely be eliminated
Every World Cup venue will have multiple cameras to track the movement of each player. Furthermore, FIFA has recently announced that they are partnering with Lenovo to create a digital 3D avatar of each player. This will ensure that a realistic 3D figure of the player is displayed during VAR reviews.
I believe the multiple cameras at the stadium, the 3D figure avatar of players, along with the connected ball technology in Trionda, will allow the officials to make correct decisions and not go with guesswork during close calls.
AI will also play a major role in this year’s World Cup. As it turns out, FIFA has developed what it is calling “Football AI Pro,” in partnership with Lenovo. You can consider it a chatbot like Gemini or ChatGPT that’s been specially trained on football data.
All teams will reportedly have access to this tool, and it will allow them to get insights about their opponents, create match reports, analyze a player’s performance, and do much more. All in all, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is apparently going to be the most technologically advanced World Cup ever.
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