VAR/Officiating and it's performance especially at the 2026 world cup

[Zlantann]

Yes I'm sure these two goals were not counted as goals based on your question.

The two were disallowed with the excuse of foul from the build up of play before such chances were created that resulted to goal. I believe the VAR and officiating of the last world cup was below average. Nothing stopped VAR to call the attention of the center referee for such infringement but it allowed play to continue until it resulted into a goal. Cancelo's bicycle kick was a very spetacular one.

Disallowing a goal because of an unserious infringement during the build-up is the most annoying part of VAR. Why cancel a goal when activities have taken over the event? VAR has been helpful, but they go to extremes sometimes. There should be some readjustment to enable fans to enjoy football.

Regarding the videos, no system is perfect, so we might experience some mistakes from these officials. Even with the VAR tools, human judgment still plays an important role in making conclusions and taking decisions. Humans are imperfect and can be emotional sometimes.

[Myleschetty]

I think the VAR serves the purpose for which it was implemented in football, which is to remove blatant mistakes and errors in official game decisions during matches. The referee still has the last word, though.
Therefore, I believe the VAR provides a probably fair result in the match, but the teams, players, and gamblers may not see it in that way cause the result is not in their favor.

[Pandu Geddon]

What do you think and what is your review about 2026 world cup VAR.

Just consider it fair; after all, something that has already passed cannot have any claims that can change the result of the match. Everyone has already watched and enjoyed a good show. 
If you don't consider it fair, perhaps some people who lost bets on the match deemed unfair because of VAR will continue to be frustrated and blame the referee. 
Just consider it fair for everyone, but from a football spectator's point of view, it's uncomfortable for me.

[yudi09]

-snip-

I don't think I watched all the matches that this incidents happened but with what the VAR showed us I think is only on Lami yamal and ziko that wasn't fair because Yamal was on the same position with their opponent so it shouldn't have been an offside, Ziko goal was the most shocking goals they disallowed for offside because he was even behind their opponent defense by the time his team mate passed the ball to him because I couldn't figure out any reason why they felt he was on the offside to disallowed the goal but actually apart from this two, the referee didn't take a wrong decisions on the other ones especially on Ronaldo and Terimi.

From what I’ve seen from various angles, Ziko’s goal during the Argentina vs. Egypt match was indeed not offside. I still remember that play, which occurred in the 58th minute, before Ziko eventually doubled Egypt’s lead in the 66th minute—though it was officially recorded as the 67th minute.
As for Ronaldo’s goal that was disallowed for offside in that video, his head and shoulders had already passed the opposing player’s body. The same goes for Taremi’s goal, which was called off during a free kick.

[swogerino]

I stumbled on a YouTube video of the world cup titled: Top 5 disallowed goals world cup 2026

So after watching it, I shook my head to wonder if VAR is probably fair to teams, players and gamblers as it were with casinos preaching probably fair to gamers.

What do you think and what is your review about 2026 world cup VAR.

Those were the goals of:

1. Ziko
2. Cancelo
3. Taremi
4. Ronaldo
5. Yamal

https://youtube.com/shorts/dqIwoYn_Gvo?si=_oj65A_pVq0Picvg

I have never been a big fan of VAR implementation anywhere because the referee, the main referee can decide that he does not want to review an action for example and that is a big flaw in the VAR implementation, I think all big incidents and not all goals disallowed for different reasons should be seen from the VAR as that is why it is created in the first place. In the World Cup I believe it were a big disgrace the refereeing there as many incidents happen some even involving big teams being eliminated like Germany for example which this remains my opinion anyway, also some other teams that suffered from VAR were also the ones listed in the names of the players that got their goals disallowed because of VAR in this world cup.

[Bigjoe33]

Are you sure Ziko goal was not counted as goal?

Are you sure Cancelo goal also was not later counted as goal?

Taremi, Ronaldo and Yamal goals are all offsides and not goals, so the way they are disallowed is better.

It is important to know that there can be some mistakes in football. The mistakes are significantly less these time than the old time.

To me, that's just it. After watching the video clip, it's clear that some of the goals were rightly cancelled, yea. Some were clearly offside.

For those ones that didn't look like offsides and we're cancelled, it happens most times, it's football, been officiated by humans, though professionals, but they are not robots, they are humans, meaning a mistake is not completely rulled out. And am sure, continually, they try to improve. VAR may look like day light robbery, of course, only to the team that it doesn't favour, but then, it has helped football receive fairer judgements unlike before when we couldn't look at anything. Anyhow, it's still better than before.

[Synchronice]

I like the fact that VAR made it possible for football to be fairer than before but honestly, simultaneously I think that VAR was sometimes used too aggressively. For example, let's talk about Croatia's disallowed goal against Portugal. The VAR technology detected an extremely slight touch and goal was removed. This was such a tiny mistake that no human could detect in live.

Another strange disallowed goal was Egypt's goal against Argentina. Technically, such a goal should be disallowed but that's simply going into too much details and makes the game less entertaining.

In terms of fairness, I still think that VAR is necessary.

[Smartprofit]

Yes, it's a paradox! The digital VAR system was introduced to ensure the objectivity of refereeing. However, digital technology cannot eliminate the human factor.

A referee who is partial without VAR will be even less so with it. Here, I think we must either completely hand over control to algorithms or accept that completely objective refereeing is impossible. Humans are the most cunning and inventive creatures on the planet. They can selectively use the most advanced digital control systems. That's the problem...

I also agree that the presence of VAR has led to football becoming a less soulful sporting event than it used to be. Perhaps everything should have remained as before. Ultimately, absolute perfection is impossible. Fairness in refereeing is, in my opinion, just an illusion. But the lively emotion of football is what we all would least like to lose... 🤷

[Adbitco]

You see that Ziko goal, it can never go unnoticed, I won't talk about others because I didn't watch them , but that Egypt and Argentina game, I watched it and saw how the system was not just bad but terrible. What we wanted mostly was fairness to both teams across the tournament but the officials made a certain team to be overall the other teams. Ziko's goal was cancelled because they claimed there was a foul to the build up of the goal, what stopped the officials from stopping play after the foul? Why wait until it resulted into a goal almost 45 seconds later only to chop it off! It becomes suspicious when an incident happens to a team and it's waves off and when the same thing happens to the opposition in the same match and it's allowed, eyebrows will be raised and questions will abound, that's the reason why we often talk about Argentina being favoured.

[Sticky Bomb]

From what I know about offside calls, as long as a body part that you can use in playing the ball is ahead of the last defender from the time the ball was released to you, then you're offside. If I go by this judgement, they were all offside, the calls were correct. The most obvious flaws in officiating in this world cup were fouls neglected from prominent stars. The weakness in officiating was pivoted by FIFA since they could wave off red card for a player, it's such a shame.

[Gozie51]

What do you think and what is your review about 2026 world cup VAR.

Just consider it fair; after all, something that has already passed cannot have any claims that can change the result of the match. Everyone has already watched and enjoyed a good show.  
If you don't consider it fair, perhaps some people who lost bets on the match deemed unfair because of VAR will continue to be frustrated and blame the referee.  
Just consider it fair for everyone, but from a football spectator's point of view, it's uncomfortable for me.

I understand how it made you feel and I hope you are not living in the past because I don't expect those who lost their bet during that time because of referee's choice to keep having such moment of saddened heart. We are just reviewing the negative or and positive side of VAR with the last world cup as a case study. Maybe the reviews here today may be useful for someone in the future.

Nothing stopped VAR to call the attention of the center referee for such infringement but it allowed play to continue until it resulted into a goal. Cancelo's bicycle kick was a very spetacular one.

Disallowing a goal because of an unserious infringement during the build-up is the most annoying part of VAR. Why cancel a goal when activities have taken over the event? VAR has been helpful, but they go to extremes sometimes. There should be some readjustment to enable fans to enjoy football.

I'm of the view too that if VAR couldn't stop an infringement as foul and a goal is scored from that, it should just keep quiet and rest. This is particularly if such infringement happened at the opponent's half. Like it happened between Argentina and Egypt that led to Zico's goat. Same happened in favour of Argentina in their own half when Salah was fouled, it resulted to goal but wasn't recalled   Anyway, that is topic for another time.

[Oshosondy]

From what I know about offside calls, as long as a body part that you can use in playing the ball is ahead of the last defender from the time the ball was released to you, then you're offside.

Did you watched the one for Ziko which is the first, and the second which is the one for Cancelo? I am very sure that the other three were offsides, but the first and the second to me do not look like offside. Watch it again and let me know your opinion about it?

All I know is that humans can make mistakes too. If the two are indeed a mistake, officiating football matches can not be 100% accurate. We have seen that in few matches.

[Antotena]

I stumbled on a YouTube video of the world cup titled: Top 5 disallowed goals world cup 2026

So after watching it, I shook my head to wonder if VAR is probably fair to teams, players and gamblers as it were with casinos preaching probably fair to gamers.

What do you think and what is your review about 2026 world cup VAR.

Those were the goals of:
https://youtube.com/shorts/dqIwoYn_Gvo?si=_oj65A_pVq0Picvg

I don't think officiating will be 100% perfect, if we want to make it too perfect I'm afraid that we are going to make the fun of football taken away. Sometimes, when you see a decision is done by the referee, it's not the VAR that decide, sometimes in the show room the VAR are neutral on some foul and goals, it's the referee that make decisions and since they follow the game, it's going to remain like that until the game is over, this is how I have seen VAR work.

There are many allegations of VAR goals that were disallowed, this is not only on the world cup, even on other leagues, I have seen many of them. However, we always complain of VAR when it does not work for us but when it work against us, we begin to complain which is bad. There are many goals videos Ronaldo has tried to claim another player goal, I think it's jaoa, after VAR investigation, the goal was awarded to the real goal scorer while Ronaldo was trying to steal another peesn goals.

[Woodie]

No matter how much we want the game of football to be fair, unfortunately human error will always make the headlines!

And looking at some of those bad calls already highlighted, it's the reason why fans and punters around the world felt there was an element of favouritism which lead to bad calls , could be an honest mistake from the pressure of these big competitions but with the lack of consistency we still have a long way to go before we get these calls right..

[Moreno233]

I could remember vividly when VAR was newly introduced, many saw it as the only reason to get the actual scenario of what happened between players, and everything could be verified through the process by rechecking what really went wrong, but some have now lost trust in the entire process because of the time lag that creates the final decision or judgment being made, subject to manipulation.

That was actually what the VAR was proposed to do and it achieved that purposed when it was launched.  It is still doing that is several leage matches but the world cup showed some differences that created so much concerns. I don't want to complete fault the initiative but as long as the final decision still lies with the referee, thwre is bound to be errors in the system. In other words, the VAR system cannot function independent of human input so there is bound to be some forms of mistakes and errors.

[taufik123]

-snip-
Another strange disallowed goal was Egypt's goal against Argentina. Technically, such a goal should be disallowed but that's simply going into too much details and makes the game less entertaining.

In terms of fairness, I still think that VAR is necessary.

In today’s technological era that is growing rapidly and this small thing can be a problem if it is not considered and in accordance with the VAR decision obtained.
Because there will be a lot of discussion about the accuracy of VAR technology about Goals that are in the thread.

VAR became justice judge on the ground and became the main benchmark for the referee's decision.
But the referee also has his own views, so it will conclude what is best to do.

A new, fairer technology will lead how a match is done, this has been the benchmark for a fair match base for all.

[Alphakilo]

I could remember vividly when VAR was newly introduced, many saw it as the only reason to get the actual scenario of what happened between players, and everything could be verified through the process by rechecking what really went wrong, but some have now lost trust in the entire process because of the time lag that creates the final decision or judgment being made, subject to manipulation.

That was actually what the VAR was proposed to do and it achieved that purposed when it was launched.  It is still doing that is several leage matches but the world cup showed some differences that created so much concerns. I don't want to complete fault the initiative but as long as the final decision still lies with the referee, thwre is bound to be errors in the system. In other words, the VAR system cannot function independent of human input so there is bound to be some forms of mistakes and errors.

I saw the videos and speaking from my experience and knowledge of being a defensive player during my days, I can agree that var was right to have ruled out just 3 out of the 5 goals disallowed. Although the margin of error would have been ignored had it been var didn't exist because it was almost unnoticeable to admit but even video evidence these days can be manipulated.
It's as most said, the referee calls the shot and they didn't fail to capitalize on ruling these canceled goals as offside with the backings of var.

[Charles-Tim]

I could remember vividly when VAR was newly introduced, many saw it as the only reason to get the actual scenario of what happened between players, and everything could be verified through the process by rechecking what really went wrong, but some have now lost trust in the entire process because of the time lag that creates the final decision or judgment being made, subject to manipulation.

That was actually what the VAR was proposed to do and it achieved that purposed when it was launched.  It is still doing that is several leage matches but the world cup showed some differences that created so much concerns. I don't want to complete fault the initiative but as long as the final decision still lies with the referee, thwre is bound to be errors in the system. In other words, the VAR system cannot function independent of human input so there is bound to be some forms of mistakes and errors.

Was the last one counted as offside? I mean the one Ziko scored? From the view, it does not look like offside, but I will prefer to see a better camera angle that is parallel to both players before making conclusion.

The remaining four were offsides. It is clearly shown that they are all offsides if opponents in the penalty arc and 18-yard box offside can be counted as offsides.

[suzanne5223]

I like the fact that VAR made it possible for football to be fairer than before but honestly, simultaneously I think that VAR was sometimes used too aggressively. For example, let's talk about Croatia's disallowed goal against Portugal. The VAR technology detected an extremely slight touch and goal was removed. This was such a tiny mistake that no human could detect in live.

Another strange disallowed goal was Egypt's goal against Argentina. Technically, such a goal should be disallowed but that's simply going into too much details and makes the game less entertaining.

In terms of fairness, I still think that VAR is necessary.

If the VAR does make football matches to be fairer, as you said, then if it is necessary use in every situation when the ball decision making is too complicated for the officiating referee, it shouldn't be seen as something aggressive or the reason why a certain decision was canceled since the VAR is preventing unfair decisions making.

[nelson4lov]

Out of all 5 goals, I think only Ziko's disallowed goal from that Egypt vs Argentina game is the most unfair among all. I personally have no issues with the technology. I believe VAR has its good and bad side. A lot of people that usually cry out when VAR doesn't favor them don't talk about the times when it did. I like that VAR makes officiating more thorough but I find the VAR decisions made during the world cup that involved Argentina to be the most sus of them all.

In the end, I think it's a good tech and a genuine addition to the game.