FIFA’s new challenges look beyond the pitch

On 29 September, FIFA announced three innovation challenges, with applications open through 1 November 2026. The calls seek proposals relating to the 2027 Women’s World Cup fan journey, next-generation sports wearables and connected substitution boards.

Three specific problems

The fan-experience challenge concerns the full matchday journey: discovering the tournament, tickets, transport, accessibility, in-stadium engagement and operations. FIFA says selected proposals may be assessed and tested for possible deployment at the 2027 tournament. That wording matters: the challenge is an invitation to develop and assess solutions, not confirmation that a particular product has been chosen or installed.

The wearable challenge seeks working prototypes that can accurately measure physical or physiological indicators such as hydration, workload, recovery and stress, and translate them into useful insight. FIFA says promising proposals could be developed, tested and validated with research partners. For athlete health, accurate measurement is only one step. Teams also need a clear view of what a metric means, who can access it, how it informs care and where its limits are.

The third call asks for connected substitution boards that link with existing team or match-management software and automate the display of player numbers. This is a narrower operations problem: reduce manual handoffs and keep the stadium display aligned with the official process. Reliability and fallback procedures matter because a connected board still has to work when a link or device fails.

Why it matters for sport technology

These challenges offer a useful lens for evaluating sports technology claims. Ask what real problem the tool addresses, what evidence the prototype must produce, whose experience it improves and what happens when it fails. “AI” or “wearable” is not itself proof of benefit. In this case FIFA has described measurable aims, but the impact will depend on the solutions submitted, their testing and whether athletes, fans and event staff find them useful.

The fan call also treats access as an end-to-end system. A digital ticket alone cannot solve transport, wayfinding or accessibility. The same design lesson applies to local sports: digital tools should fit the whole journey around training and competition, including low-connectivity settings and people who rely on non-digital alternatives.

We will revisit this story after the 1 November application deadline, and again when FIFA publishes test selections or results. This note reports the opportunity as announced; it does not independently assess any proposed products.