India, June 3 -- FIFA has added a new layer of offside technology for the 2026 World Cup, with assistant referees set to receive real-time audio alerts when an attacker is clearly beyond the defensive line.

The upgraded system will alert the assistant referee if a player is more than 10cm offside, allowing the flag to go up immediately in clearer cases rather than forcing play to continue until the attacking move is over.

The change is aimed at reducing one of the most unpopular parts of the VAR era: the delayed flag. Since the introduction of video review, assistant referees have often been instructed to keep the flag down in close attacking moves, especially when a goalscoring chance may develop. The idea was to avoid wrongly stopping...