It will feel, Japan promised, as though fans are in the actual stadium, watching and living a World Cup match even when they are on the other side of the globe.
Aiming to dazzle FIFA with modern magic, Japan said Wednesday that if it hosts the World Cup in 2022 it will beam games to stadiums around the planet using revolutionary 3-D technology.
The broadcasts will make it seem as though players are rising out of the ground, almost holographically. The football action in Japan would be filmed using hundreds of cameras and then be broadcast to screens which will be laid flat on the pitches of iconic locations like Wembley Stadium in London or the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.
The 3-D images will protrude from the ground, making it seem to watching fans that they are witnessing the real game. The players would appear to be life-size and the action would be in real time.
That, at least, is what the Japanese promised.
''The idea of this technology blows my mind,'' Kohzo Tashima, the CEO of the Japanese bid, said in its presentation to the executive committee of FIFA, which will chose the 2018 and 2022 hosts on Thursday.
He said it will allow 360 million people around the world - many times more than at any previous World Cups - to enjoy a ''full stadium experience,'' offer ''a completely new experience of enjoying football'' and provide FIFA with ''dramatic'' new ways to make money.
Japan's team, presenting last of five nations bidding for 2022, showed computer-generated mock-ups of what the images would look like but not a working model of the technology.
However, Sony chairman and CEO Howard Stringer said the so-called Full Court 3-D Vision will work.
''This is not science fiction,'' he said. ''In 2022, this will be science fact.''
Japan is not considered the favorite to win Thursday's vote, in part because it co-hosted the World Cup in 2002 with South Korea, which also is now bidding again.
Stringer acknowledged those concerns, saying that the 2002 tournament ''seemed like it only happened yesterday,'' but he and others in the bid presentation focused on Japan's promise of a technological leap for football and FIFA.
''We are talking about one very big idea,'' said Junji Ogura, the bid chairman who also is a FIFA executive and will have a vote Thursday. ''This is the next great adventure FIFA can lead.''
The other candidates for 2022 are Australia, the United States and Qatar.
