Get Guardian on GoogleTrionda, the official match ball for the 2026 World Cup, hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, will be plugged in and charged before kickoff.
The ball has a lightweight 14-gram sensor that lasts for up to six hours, way more than 90 minutes required for a football match.
Reports indicate that Trionda contains built-in 500Hz motion sensors that require power to transmit precise, real-time ball-tracking data to the VAR system for offside and goal-line decisions.
For the 2022 World Cup, the sensor was embedded in the ball’s wires, but now it is integrated into one of its panels.
The data is combined with input from 12 cameras positioned around the stadiums to accurately track the ball’s and each player’s position 50 times per second.
This information is transmitted in real time to VAR and is used for goal-line technology and offside decisions.
Manufactured by Adidas, the ball is named after “three waves” in Spanish, and has a design that celebrates the three host nations—Canada (red, maple leaf), Mexico (green, eagle), and the United States (blue, star). It features a revolutionary, highly aerodynamic four-panel design.
