A video assistant referee can intervene only within the incidents and conditions allowed by football’s VAR protocol. It is not a system for replaying every disputed decision, and the referee retains responsibility for the final ruling.
This guide uses the 2026/27 Laws of the Game and protocol published by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), checked on October 2, 2026. A particular competition’s implementation and optional provisions must be confirmed separately.
What the Current Protocol Covers
The IFAB protocol covers goal decisions, penalty decisions, red-card incidents and mistaken identity. It also provides a competition option for correcting a clearly wrongly awarded corner, but only immediately and without delaying the restart.
For the main categories, intervention concerns a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident. A debatable decision is not automatically one that must change.
Okay News reports that IFAB’s announcement of the 2026/27 changes added three important provisions:
- A red card arising from a clearly incorrect second yellow card can be reviewed.
- Mistaken-identity intervention extends to a wrong-team attribution that produces a card for the wrong player.
- Competitions may adopt the limited wrongly-awarded-corner option.
An older summary saying that second yellow cards are never reviewable omits the first change. Equally, the new wording does not make every yellow-card decision reviewable.
An Incorrect Second Yellow Is Different From a Missed One
The current protocol distinguishes reversing a clearly wrong second caution from intervening solely to issue a second caution the referee missed.
In a fictional example, a player already on a yellow card receives another for an alleged foul. Clear video evidence establishes that the decision was wrong. Under the 2026/27 provision, the resulting sending-off can be reviewed.
Change the example: the referee does not penalise an incident that might have warranted a second yellow. The protocol does not permit intervention solely to add that missed second caution. An incident independently meeting another reviewable category, such as a direct-red-card offence, raises a different question.
Check and Review Are Not the Same
A check is the video officials’ examination of a potentially relevant incident. It can finish without an on-field stoppage or a trip to the monitor.
A review is the formal reconsideration of a decision. IFAB’s Law 5 provides for the referee to decide using video information or an on-field review. The official who watches the monitor is not required to change the original call merely because a review occurred.
Distinguish factual questions, such as where an offence occurred, from judgements about a challenge or interference with an opponent. The evidence needed to establish location is not always enough to establish the nature of an offence.
Why the Same Replay Can Raise Different Questions
A fictional replay might show that contact occurred just outside the penalty area. That is a location question. Whether the contact was a foul remains a separate assessment.
For offside, technology can help establish position without resolving every question about involvement. FIFA describes its work on calibrated offside lines as addressing the difficulty of assessing position from camera images. The guide to offside position and involvement explains why a line alone does not establish whether a player interfered with an opponent.
Do not use a slow-motion freeze-frame as a substitute for the complete sequence. In particular, the intensity of a challenge requires attention to how it happened, not just the point of contact.
The Corner Option Is Limited
The new option concerns a clearly incorrect award of a corner. It does not authorise an extended delay to investigate every corner or permit any restart decision to be reopened after play has resumed.
For example, an immediate clear view may establish that the attacker, rather than the defender, touched the ball last before an awarded corner. Whether that option can be used depends on the competition’s adoption and the protocol’s timing conditions. This guide does not claim that a particular league has adopted it.
Check the Competition Before Judging the Incident
IFAB requires competition organisers using VAR to meet the implementation requirements and obtain FIFA’s written permission. A televised match does not establish, by itself, that VAR or every optional protocol is in operation.
The broader guide to football decisions, offences and restarts sets out the questions that precede a video review. Before assessing a decision, identify the applicable edition, the reviewable category and the competition’s approved arrangements. Then distinguish the on-field decision, any check, the reason for a review and the final ruling.
