2 weeks ago
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FIFA have released a statement, confirming that the technology providing VAR offside images went down, before Switzerland’s controversial opener vs Qatar.
Breel Embolo opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Remo Freuler had been fouled following a collision with Qatari goalkeeper Mahmud Abunada.
Freuler, however, looked as though he was offside.
The incident was checked by VAR, but it was decided that Freuler was onside.
FIFA did not provide a replay and has now revealed that the technology that generated the semi-automatic images had gone down.
An official statement read: “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.
“The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the on-field decision. 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.”
2026 World Cup: VAR failed – FIFA releases statement on controversial Switzerland goal
English (US) ·