New rules for VAR and to avoid wasting time: from the 2026 World Cup, technology will become increasingly central in the game of football.
No more cases like that of Kalulu’s expulsion for Bastoni’s simulation. And not even goals scored after corners that weren’t there and excessive time wasted due to injuries and substitutions. The package of regulatory changes launched by the Ifab (International Football Association Board) in its 104th edition of the General Assembly in Wales significantly changes the habits of referees, players and fans.
The most important intervention is on the heart of the VAR, i.e. its protocol. The time has come to take a step forward and make the help of technology even more present so that the truth on the pitch is respected: “Look at what happened in Inter-Juventus, in ten seconds we could have saved ourselves a nightmare week”, said Pierluigi Collina, number one FIFA referee and Ifab member. Let’s be clear: the change does not come because of what happened at San Siro and was decided before, but the precedent will help everyone accept the new rule.
VAR review possible for second yellow cards and corners
The most impactful news therefore concerns the second warnings that lead to the expulsion of a player. The VAR Room will have to analyze them and intervene in case of evidence of an obvious error by calling the field referee to review them. Nothing changes for the first yellow cards, otherwise the field would be open to live slow motion on dozens of episodes, and not even in the event of a yellow card being lost and which would have been the second: the VAR is authorized to intervene only on yellow cards drawn by the referee.
The possibility is also added – if the organizers of individual competitions wish to make use of it – to quickly check the correctness of the awarding of a corner kick. In this way the Ifab aims to prevent a goal from being scored from a situation in which the field evaluation was wrong. The check must be short, not interrupting the flow of the game, ending in the few seconds that are traditionally used by a team to organize the corner serve.
Fight against wasting time on the pitch: the new rules
The other cornerstone of Ifab’s intervention is the fight against wasting time on the pitch. There are several fields of application of the philosophy against cunning players who reduce the actual time played in matches. The introduction of the 8-second time limit for a goalkeeper to get rid of the ball once he has gained possession of it was considered a success and opened up the possibility of expanding the number of cases.
If the referee believes that a throw-in or a goal kick is being intentionally delayed by the person taking it, he may trigger an 8-second countdown at the end of which he will reverse the throw-in or award a corner kick to the attacking team in the event of a delayed goal kick.
The rules for substitutions also change. The players called to the bench by their coach will have ten seconds to leave the pitch and if this does not happen the substitute will have to wait for the first interruption of the game to be able to make his entry, thus leaving the team numerically inferior
In the event of an injury, however, if the player receives help from the medical staff on the pitch or the game is stopped, that player will have to leave the pitch for one minute with the exception of the goalkeeper. The rule does not apply if the person who committed the foul received a yellow or red card because it would be proven that the effects of the intervention were not simulated.
