VAR Protocol

VAR stands for Video Assistant Referee: an assistant who advises the referee on clear and obvious errors, never a second referee who rules himself.

OFR = On-Field Review: the referee goes to the pitchside monitor and looks at the footage himself before making the final call. It is used mainly for subjective decisions, where the referee's own judgement of what he sees is the point of the review.

VAR exists to fix decisions that are plainly wrong, not to re-referee every close call. If a decision is merely debatable, the referee's original call stands, even if the VAR would have judged it differently. This threshold is what keeps VAR from stopping the game over marginal contact.

A serious missed incident is a major event the on-field officials simply did not see, typically violent conduct, spitting or biting off the ball.

SAOT (Semi-Automated Offside Technology) uses dedicated tracking cameras and limb-tracking software to build the offside line automatically. It is 'semi'-automated because a human still validates the kick point and the result before the referee is told.

AVAR = Assistant VAR. AVARs sit with the VAR and split the workload: one keeps watching the live game while the VAR is checking a replay, one works the offside station, one follows the broadcast feed.

VOR = Video Operation Room. It houses the VAR, the AVARs and the replay operators, and may be at the stadium or in a centralised hub serving several matches at once.

The TV signal is the referee outlining a rectangle with both hands. It is the only public part of the process: it tells everyone in the ground that a review is under way, and it is shown again to announce the outcome.

Almost every automatic VAR check finds nothing and ends silently, so play simply continues and nobody in the stadium ever knows a check took place.

FVS is being trialled by FIFA and IFAB for competitions that cannot afford full VAR: far fewer cameras, no large video operation room, and reviews triggered by a limited number of team requests rather than by a dedicated video official watching every phase.

The four reviewable categories are: goal / no-goal, penalty / no-penalty, direct red card, and mistaken identity.

A top-tier VAR team is usually the VAR plus three AVARs: AVAR1 on the live main camera, AVAR2 at the offside station, AVAR3 on the TV programme feed and communication.

IFAB's stated principle is that accuracy matters more than speed: there is no maximum review time in the Laws, and no review is abandoned because a clock ran out.

Twelve dedicated tracking cameras under the stadium roof followed every player, on top of the normal broadcast cameras. They feed the limb-tracking model that builds the offside line.

SAOT tracks 29 data points per player, sampled many times per second, so the system knows exactly which part of the body was furthest forward at the moment the ball was played.

VAR entered the Laws in 2018, SAOT followed at the 2022 World Cup, the Premier League began PA announcements in 2025/26, and the 140th AGM's changes apply from 1 July 2026.

SAOT debuted at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, four years after VAR itself arrived at a World Cup. Do not confuse the two dates: VAR is 2018, SAOT is 2022.

From 2025/26 the referee explains the outcome of a review over the stadium PA system, so the crowd hears the same reasoning as the television audience. Factual offside calls are excepted, as there is nothing to explain.

FVS works like a challenge system: each team gets two review requests per match, made by the coach through the fourth official. That is the opposite of VAR, where teams may not request anything at all.

Law changes agreed at an IFAB AGM come into force on 1 July, so the 140th AGM (February 2026) decisions apply from 1 July 2026. Competitions already under way may adopt them earlier with permission, which is how they reached the 2026 World Cup.

The final decision is always the on-field referee's. The VAR can only advise, and the referee may accept or reject that advice. This is the point of the whole protocol: the technology informs the referee, it does not replace him.

The VAR may recommend an OFR, but only the referee can decide to take one; that distinction between recommending and deciding runs through the whole protocol.

Football deliberately rejected the challenge model used in other sports. The VAR checks every incident in the four categories automatically, so there is nothing for a team to request; excessive protests asking for a review are cautionable as dissent.

The VAR watches the game, checks the four categories in the background, and speaks to the referee only on a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident; he never changes a decision himself.

Someone must keep watching the actual match while the VAR is buried in replays. That is AVAR1's job: he follows the live main camera and flags anything the VAR would otherwise miss.

AVAR2 sits at the dedicated offside station, setting the kick point and the line (or validating what SAOT produces) so that offside checks come back to the VAR as fast as possible.

AVAR3 follows the TV programme feed, the pictures the world is seeing, and helps coordinate communication with the on-field team. It means the VAR team knows immediately if broadcast has an angle they have not yet looked at.

The referee chooses; in practice the type follows the decision, factual matters go VAR-only, subjective judgements send the referee to the monitor.

The referee himself takes a microphone and explains the outcome over the public address system. Having the decision-maker explain his own decision is the whole point; a third party reading out a summary would not achieve it.

The VAR has no power to stop the game. He tells the referee what he has seen and recommends a stoppage; the referee then blows the whistle at a suitable moment.

Every goal falls under goal / no-goal, and the check covers the whole attacking move: offside, handball, a foul in the build-up, or the ball having left the field of play earlier.

The category works in both directions: a penalty wrongly given and a penalty wrongly not given are both reviewable. What matters is whether the on-field decision was clearly wrong, not which way it went.

Whether a caution was deserved is not reviewable. Who received it is: since the 140th AGM, mistaken identity covers yellow cards as well as red, so the VAR can have the card moved to the right player.

All direct red cards are reviewable: serious foul play, violent conduct, spitting, biting, denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, and offensive or abusive language. A red card given and a red card missed are both covered.

The 140th AGM opened one narrow door: a red card from a clearly incorrect second caution can be reviewed; the first caution stays untouchable.

It is an option, not a rule: a competition may allow the VAR to correct a clearly wrong corner-versus-goal-kick call, but only where the check is instant.

Which team gets a throw-in is outside the four categories, however badly it is called and whatever follows from it. Note the separate point: whether the ball actually left the field during the build-up to a goal IS reviewable, under goal / no-goal.

Offside in the attacking move that produced the goal is reviewable, whether or not the offside player touched the last pass. SAOT only speeds the check up; without it the lines are drawn by hand and the review still happens.

The check reaches back over the attacking possession phase that produced the goal, not back to the start of the half.

VAR was deliberately limited to match-changing moments. A routine missed foul, however annoying, changes no goal, no penalty, no red card and no identity, so it is simply not reviewable.

The rectangle is shown twice: once to tell the ground that a review is starting, and once to announce that the review is finished and the decision follows. It is shown for VAR-only reviews too, not just for trips to the monitor.

The sequence is fixed: TV signal, walk to the review area, watch the selected replays, return, TV signal again, then the final decision.

For factual matters there is nothing for the referee to judge by eye, so the VAR simply tells him what the footage shows and the referee acts on it. It is faster than an OFR, which is why offside and location calls are handled this way.

Offside is punished with an indirect free kick where the offside player interfered with play, so the restart is the same as any offside: an indirect free kick to the defending team, not a goal kick.

Only the referee may enter the referee review area. A player, substitute or substituted player who enters it is cautioned; a team official who enters it is sent off. The monitor is the referee's alone.

Once play restarts the window closes for almost everything. The only exceptions are mistaken identity and the most serious sending-off offences: violent conduct, spitting, biting and extremely offensive or abusive language.

A review is not an obligation to change anything. If the referee looks at the footage and still believes his call was right, it stands, and the VAR has no further say.

Striking an opponent is a direct-free-kick offence wherever it happens, so the restart is a direct free kick at the place of the offence.

Cards for offences committed after the incident, such as dissent, stand whatever the review finds; only cards tied to the overturned decision itself fall away.

The 140th AGM tidied this up: if advantage runs and the goal is scored anyway, nothing was actually denied, so no caution follows. Contrast the case where advantage is played and no goal comes of it, where the caution is still shown at the next stoppage.

Mock trials in the Eredivisie (2012-13) came before the KNVB's formal petition (2014), FIFA Council approval for the World Cup (March 2018), and the Premier League's own adoption (2019/20).

The Refereeing 2.0 project ran mock trials during the 2012-13 Eredivisie season: video officials worked real matches offline, changing nothing, purely to see whether they could have corrected the errors.

IFAB wrote VAR into the Laws at its AGM in March 2018; the FIFA Council then confirmed its use at the World Cup at its meeting in Bogotá on 16 March 2018, only three months before the tournament kicked off.

The Premier League adopted VAR from 2019/20, a season after the World Cup debut and later than several other major leagues, having voted against an earlier introduction.

At the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup the referee took a microphone and explained review outcomes to the stadium. It worked, and the idea spread from there to domestic competitions.

The September 2023 Liverpool-Tottenham error, once its audio was published, drove the push for public VAR announcements and clearer protocols.

FIFA trialled SAOT live at the Arab Cup and the Club World Cup in 2021 before trusting it at the 2022 World Cup. The pattern is standard: small tournament first, showpiece second.

The 140th AGM, in February 2026, added the review of a red card arising from a clearly incorrect second caution. It was the first widening of the red-card category since VAR entered the Laws.

Mistaken identity used to be reviewable only for red cards; since the 140th AGM a yellow card shown to the wrong player can also be corrected.

Refereeing 2.0 was a KNVB project in the Netherlands in the early 2010s. VAR did not come down from FIFA; it was pushed upwards by one national association until IFAB agreed to trial it.

VAR is an aid, not a condition of the match. If the system dies, the referee simply officiates as referees did before 2018; competition rules decide whether a stand-by VAR is brought in.

Stopping a live attack to review an earlier incident would punish the team now in possession, so the referee waits for the ball to reach a neutral area or for the next stoppage. He also delays the restart himself while the check runs.

The kick-off is held back until the check completes, because once play restarts the goal can no longer be reviewed.

A restart closes the window: once the free kick has been taken, the incident before it can no longer be reviewed, except for mistaken identity or violent conduct, spitting, biting and abusive language. That is exactly why referees hold the restart while a check is running.

Violent conduct, spitting, biting and extremely offensive language survive the restart, together with mistaken identity. The player can be sent off after play has resumed; play is stopped and restarted according to the offence.

A missed red card is exactly what the direct-red-card category is for, and a yellow shown instead of a red is treated as a missed red card. After the on-field review the caution is withdrawn and a red card is shown; the VAR never shows the card himself.

Reviews cut both ways. A red card given for a challenge that was reckless rather than endangering an opponent's safety is downgraded: the sending-off is withdrawn and the correct sanction, a caution, is given instead.

Where an offence happened is a factual question, so contact inside the area means a penalty, whatever the referee first thought, provided play has not restarted.

The bar is the restart, not the referee's signal: until the kick-off is actually taken the goal is still reviewable.

Losing the monitor only removes the referee's ability to look at the footage himself. The VAR can still describe what he sees, and a VAR-only review may go ahead; if the whole system is down, the on-field decision stands.

If the answer is a fact, the VAR can simply state it and the referee acts, so it is VAR-only. If the answer is a judgement, the referee must see it with his own eyes, so he goes to the monitor. The place on the pitch has nothing to do with it.

GLT answers one question automatically with no official in the loop; VAR is a human process across four categories that only starts when a check finds something.

SAOT changes only the speed and consistency of the measurement: the tracking data fixes the kick point and the body points and builds the line without an operator dragging it by hand. The offside law, the flag and the referee's authority are all unchanged.

A challenge system gives teams a limited number of requests; football's VAR checks everything in the four categories itself, with no team having any say.

FVS is a challenge system by design: with no video official watching every phase, the review has to be triggered by someone, so each team may request a small, fixed number per match. Under full VAR a request from a team means nothing.

Before 2018 the referee's on-field decision was final, mistake or not. VAR changed that for four categories of decision only, and it did not touch who decides: the referee still has the final word.

The change is about communication, not power: the referee explains review outcomes over the PA so the crowd is no longer the last to know. Who may review what, and who decides, is exactly as before.

DRS is team-initiated with a limited number of reviews per innings, so using it is a tactical choice. Football took the opposite route: the officials check everything in the four categories and the teams have no say at all.

GLT looks at one instant on one line; the VAR's goal / no-goal check runs back through the whole attacking move.

Every goal, penalty incident and red-card incident is checked, but the overwhelming majority end in seconds with nothing found, and play just goes on. A review, with the TV signal and a possible trip to the monitor, is the rare visible tip of that work.

Level is onside, so the on-field decision was right and there is nothing to correct. The check ends silently and the kick-off is taken; the referee is never sent to the monitor to confirm a decision that was already correct.

The location of an offence is a factual matter the VAR can settle; the foul was real, so only the place changes, to a direct free kick from outside the area.

Two separate things follow from one incident. The discipline: striking an opponent is violent conduct, a red card. The restart: a direct-free-kick offence by a defender inside his own penalty area is a penalty kick, wherever the ball was at the time.

This is mistaken identity, which since the 140th AGM covers yellow cards as well as red. The offence itself is not re-examined; only the identity of the offender is corrected, so player A's caution is withdrawn and player B is booked.

The contrast with the goal-scored case is the whole point. A DOGSO offence where advantage is played and the chance is not converted is punished with a caution, not a sending-off, at the next stoppage; if the goal had gone in, no card at all.

Only the incorrect second caution is wiped, and with it the red card that flowed from it. The player's first caution is untouched and still counts, so he continues one booking away from a genuine dismissal.

The ball leaving the field during the attacking move is reviewable under goal / no-goal, even if nobody noticed at the time.

The review area belongs to the referee. A player or substitute who enters it is cautioned; a team official is dismissed, which is the difference the Law draws between the two.

A penalty given for a simulation is a clear and obvious error, and is still reviewable because the kick has not been taken.

Reviews are not a truce. Dissent is dissent, and following the referee to the monitor to protest earns a caution under Law 12; if he steps into the review area itself, the caution is automatic.

The VAR is an assistant match official. He advises, recommends and informs; the referee on the pitch decides. Every rule about who may start a review, who goes to the monitor and who has the final word follows from that one word.

Goal / no-goal, penalty / no-penalty, direct red card and mistaken identity. A midfield foul that leads to nothing sits outside all four, so the VAR says nothing however clearly he saw it.

The referee's call always stands; a review gives him better pictures, not a superior.

Handball is a judgement, on the arm's position and whether it made the body unnaturally bigger, so the referee must see it himself at the monitor; offside position and the location of a foul are facts, settled VAR-only.

The threshold is clear and obvious error, not disagreement. On a genuine 50-50 the referee's call is not clearly wrong, so the VAR keeps quiet, whatever he would have given himself. A VAR who intervenes here is re-refereeing the match.

SAOT produces the kick point, the limb positions and the resulting line, plus the 3D animation shown to the crowd. A human still validates it and the referee still decides; a yes/no verdict with no official in the loop is goal-line technology, not SAOT.

VAR entered the Laws in 2018 and was used at the 2018 World Cup; SAOT only debuted at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The four-year gap is the difference between the review system itself and the tool that speeds up one kind of check inside it.

Announcements exist to explain reasoning. A factual offside has no reasoning to explain, the picture settles it, so it is excepted; the subjective calls, where the crowd genuinely wants to know why, are the ones the referee explains.

Every goal is checked automatically, so a captain's request changes nothing: it was already happening.

There is no time limit, and no decision defaults back to the original call because a clock ran out. Accuracy is the stated priority; officials are told to be as quick as they can, but never at the cost of getting it right.