FIFA Museum reminds of Uganda's technological needs

Ugandans know all about the value of technology in football, with the recent CHAN tournament endearing the Cranes' fan base to the benefits of VAR. 

Not once, not twice, but three times, the Cranes were handed penalties by VAR, most memorably in the pulsating 3-3 draw with South Africa, in which two spot kicks in stoppage time took Uganda to the CHAN quarters for the first time in seven tries.

'VAR FC' subsequently became one of Uganda's nicknames, as the football fraternity tried to make sense of the Cranes' CHAN run.  Reaping the benefits of technology in the manner Uganda did might seem largely subjective, but the reality is that football's progress as the world's first sport objectively owes a great deal to technology. That view is captured by the new exhibition of technology that opened in the FIFA Museum in Zurich this week. 

Developed in collaboration with the FIFA Innovation Team and other FIFA departments, the exhibition aims to take visitors behind the scenes of the Beautiful Game.

From the broadcast booth to the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) screen, from high-speed cameras to wearable sensors, Innovation in Action showcases how technology works hand in hand with players, referees, and fans to strengthen skill, improve fairness, and enrich experiences, without replacing the emotion and human judgment at the heart of football.

“What makes this exhibition truly special is that we can give visitors a never-before-seen behind-the-scenes look that allows them to step inside football innovation, experiencing it hands-on rather than just reading about it,” says Marco Fazzone, Managing Director of the FIFA Museum. “We offer a glimpse at technologies and tools that fans don’t normally get to experience up close, while also showing how innovation has evolved over almost 100 years of FIFA World Cup history.”

Ugandan football remains miles behind the best leagues in the adoption of technology, which is partly why the CHAN tournament captivated the imagination of locals, as it gave them a taste of a technology that is already normative in other parts of the football world. Which is why there was a sense of irony in the appointment of FUFA president Moses Magogo to the FIFA committee for Football Technology, Innovation and Digital Transformation last month. Then again, the exposure could be a catalyst for improving the state of technology in Ugandan football. 

The FIFA Museum is both retrospective and full of modern innovations that are pushing the game forward. Organised around five themed areas—Broadcasting & Media, Intelligent Data, Refereeing & Fair Play, Staging the Game, and the Innovation Lab—the exhibition blends rare objects with immersive, hands-on experiences.

Visitors can trace football’s journey on screen from the static black-and-white cameras of the 1954 edition of the FIFA World Cup to the ultra-slow motion 4K footage of recent installments of the global showpiece, step into a referee’s shoes in a referee view area setup, and explore how pitch testing processes ensure the perfect stage for the world’s best players.

Among the exhibition highlights is the FIFA Player App, where visitors can explore Cole Palmer’s personal performance statistics with Chelsea FC from the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Final, showing how data is shared directly with players to help them understand and improve their game. In other words, the sort of elements desperately needed to improve the Ugandan game.