FIFA Confirms VAR Technology Failure During Qatar vs Switzerland Match
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.
“The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the on-field decision,” the statement added.
FIFA further maintained that the offside review conducted by VAR showed that the attacking player was in a legal position before the incident that resulted in the penalty.
“The lines used by the VAR to check the position of the relevant players did not show the attacking player to be in an offside position in either of the two situations immediately before the penalty decision,” FIFA stated.
The clarification comes after questions were raised by fans and observers over the absence of the usual offside animation graphic during the review process.
FIFA, however, insisted that the technical outage did not compromise the integrity of the decision-making process and that the penalty award was reached following standard VAR protocols.
