The International Football Association Board is weighing two significant changes that could reshape match officiating ahead of the 2026 World Cup. IFAB\u2019s advisory panel discussed a proposal to allow video assistant referees to intervene on second yellow cards that result in a sending off. Currently VAR cannot intervene on those incidents, but an official proposal is expected to be submitted ahead of IFAB\u2019s Annual Business Meeting in January.<\/p>\n
Appeals to bring second yellow cards under VAR\u2019s remit have been made since the system\u2019s introduction. Premier League referees chief Howard Webb struck a cautious tone when discussing the idea earlier this season. \u201cThe message we get is \u2018less is more\u2019 with VAR, and we\u2019ve done pretty well in aligning our delivery with that expectation,\u201d Webb crowed to BBC Sport. \u201cIf the game, or the people involved, tell us that greater use would be better for the game, then of course I\u2019d be open\u2014but we need to think carefully about the consequences, the ripple effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are talking about yellow cards that are delivered incorrectly, which could be impactful on the game, then you also have to think about wrongly not-issued yellow cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the impact of a wrongly awarded corner that’s clearly wrong\u2014easy to see on video\u2014and the impact of a wrongly issued yellow card. But equally there\u2019s also a feeling that VAR already exists to rectify clear errors in big situations, so we\u2019ll have those discussions and make sure to consult with the English game as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separately, IFAB is examining ways to speed match time through broader countdown measures. Ahead of the 2025\/26 campaign, goalkeepers were limited to eight seconds in control of the ball and referees were advised to provide a visual five-second countdown by lowering a raised arm. Burnley\u2019s Martin D\u00fabravka became the first Premier League player to be counted out in an opening weekend defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, but the eight-second law has seen little implementation in the top flight since.<\/p>\n
IFAB say the rule has received “positive global feedback” and are considering applying timed countdowns to goal kicks and throw-ins. Throw-ins have attracted attention this season, with Brentford spending more than 70 combined minutes preparing for throw-ins across the first nine games and the average Premier League side taking more than 17 seconds to prepare each throw-in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IFAB reviewing expanded VAR powers and wider countdowns for goalkeepers, goal kicks and throw-ins…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[728,795,172],"tags":[1162,1197],"class_list":["post-4142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brentford","category-burnley","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-game-clock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}