The FIFA World Cup 2026 has brought the familiar debate over Video Assistant Referee decisions back into sharp focus, with several high-profile incidents prompting questions about how referees and VAR officials apply the laws of the game.

Throughout the tournament, ESPN FC has been examining the most significant calls — red cards, penalties, and handball rulings — to assess whether the officials got them right and to explain the protocols that govern each type of review.

How VAR reviews work

VAR is not designed to reverse every questionable decision. Under FIFA protocol, the video assistant referee can only intervene in four categories of incident: goals and offences leading to goals, penalty decisions, direct red cards, and cases of mistaken identity.

When a potential error is identified, the VAR team in the review hub alerts the on-field referee. The referee may then either accept the recommendation and change the decision, or visit the pitchside monitor — known as an on-field review — to assess the footage personally before making a final call.

Red card incidents

Several red card decisions at World Cup 2026 have been scrutinised under the VAR process. The key question in each case is whether the tackle or foul met the threshold of serious foul play or violent conduct — the two categories that carry an automatic dismissal under the laws of the game.

Serious foul play requires that the player endangered the safety of an opponent using excessive force. Violent conduct, by contrast, can occur away from the ball and covers any act of aggression. VAR reviewers assess camera angles and frame-by-frame footage to determine whether the bar for a red card has been cleared.

Penalty decisions

Handball and foul-in-the-box calls have produced some of the tournament's most contentious moments. Under current FIFA rules, a handball is penalised if the arm or hand is in an unnatural position that makes the player's body unnaturally bigger — but judging