Which Incidents Can VAR Review at the FIFA World Cup 2026?

When FIFA introduced VAR (Video Assistant Referee) at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, reactions were divided – and that’s putting it mildly. Some saw it as a long-overdue way of fixing the kind of refereeing howler that used to define tournaments. Others thought it killed the rhythm of a game that had got along fine without it for a century.

The system has been tweaked every year since. At the 2026 World Cup, hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico beginning on June 11, there are several specific changes to what the video referee is allowed to look at. The IFAB (International Football Association Board) signed them off at its annual meeting earlier this year, and they cover both the VAR protocol and a separate push to stop teams running down the clock.

All of this will have a sizable effect on results, and therefore on anyone planning to wager on a match. When it comes to the FIFA World Cup betting odds, offered by bookmakers, markets shift on every red card and every penalty, and with VAR now ruling on a wider set of incidents, the swings in price during a match are about to get sharper. A few sportsbooks even offer odds on whether VAR will be used at all during a given game.

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A Short History of VAR at the World Cup

The 2018 tournament was the first to use it. Across 64 matches there were 21 on-field reviews and 455 incidents checked, an average of just over seven per game.

Penalties produced the most reviews, and the system corrected a handful of significant calls — including the Ivan Perišić handball in the final, which gave France the spot-kick that put them 2-1 up on the way to a 4-2 win against Croatia.

The first on-field review in World Cup history came in France's group game with Australia, when VAR Mauro Vigliano sent Andrés Cunha to the monitor to look again at a foul on Antoine Griezmann.

What VAR Already Covers

The IFAB protocol that has been in place since 2018 lets the video referee step in for four kinds of incidents. All four still apply in 2026:

Goal / no goal. Every goal scored automatically goes through a VAR check. The video team looks back through the build-up for an offside, a handball, a foul, anything the referee and his assistants might have missed.

Penalty or no penalty. VAR can review possible fouls or handballs inside the penalty area to establish whether a spot-kick is justified, and can also overturn one that has been awarded if the footage shows no offense took place. Historically, this is the most contentious category of all.

Direct red card. Straight reds are reviewable — serious foul play, violent conduct, off-the-ball strikes, denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Mistaken identity in a sending-off. If the referee shows a card to the wrong player, VAR can step in to make sure the right name goes in the match record .

Three New Powers for the 2026 World Cup

At its 2026 Annual General Meeting, the IFAB voted through three additions in February. All of them are live for the World Cup:

Second yellow cards leading to a sending-off. Until now, if a referee booked a player for a second time and sent him off, VAR could not intervene, because the dismissal was not a straight red. That gap is closed. The video referee can now recommend overturning a second yellow if the footage clearly shows the player did nothing wrong, or that there was no contact at all. The reverse does not apply: VAR cannot tell the referee to book someone he chose not to book.

Incorrectly awarded corner kicks. VAR can now check whether a corner has been correctly awarded, but only if the check can be done immediately, without delaying the restart. If it takes too long, it does not happen. One caveat worth flagging: corner reviews are an option that each competition can adopt rather than something every tournament has to use, though FIFA is expected to apply them at the World Cup.

Mistaken identity, now for yellow cards too. Previously this only covered situations where a red card or a foul that produced a yellow had been pinned on the wrong player. Now it also covers cases where the referee penalizes the wrong team entirely, so the yellow ends up with someone who had nothing to do with the offense.

The table below summarizes where things stand:

What Is an OFR?

There are two levels of VAR intervention, and the difference is worth knowing.

A VAR check is the invisible kind. The video team works through the footage in the VAR room and talks to the referee through his earpiece. If nothing clear comes up, the game carries on and the crowd never knows it happened.

The On-Field Review (OFR) is the visible kind. This is what you see on television when the referee jogs over to the pitchside monitor to look at the replay himself. An OFR is recommended when the video team has found what looks like a clear error but wants the referee to make the call in context. The referee retains the final decision.

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