June 14, 2026
FIFA has explained the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) process that led to a penalty being awarded during the World Cup match between Qatar and Switzerland, insisting that a technical problem did affect the final decision.
In a statement, FIFA explained that a temporary technical issue prevented the offside animation graphic from being displayed ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute of the match.
“During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Area, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute. The issue was quickly resolved,” FIFA said.
The world football governing body stressed that the malfunction was limited to the graphic generation system and did not interfere with the VAR review process itself.
