Following approval by the IFAB for the use of small handheld technologies on the bench, FIFA is set to offer all the teams at the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ a technical setup for match analysts and coaching team to interact.

Each team will be offered two devices: one for the team analyst observing the match from the media tribune, another for the coaching team at the bench.

Two optical tracking cameras located on the media tribune track the positional data of players and ball. Processed data as well as live footage is transmitted to the analyst workstation at the media tribune. The analyst analyses the player metrics, reviews situations of the match and can highlight areas for considerations with the help of an analyst application. The analyst can send a still image with his drawings down to the technical area and can talk to the assistant coach via radio communication. The assistant coach can also talk to the analyst and send messages back via a chat tool.

At the half time break, analysis of marked situations can be undertaken in the changing room. A post-match analysis is also provided to teams on FIFA’s platform.

The animation below illustrates this interaction.