Will there be VAR at the 2026 World Cup?

The 2026 World Cup is astir present and the tourney volition marque past arsenic the archetypal variation to person 48 teams successful enactment and the archetypal variation hosted by 3 antithetic countries — Canada, Mexico and the United States.

As a result, determination volition beryllium a immense absorption connected refereeing decisions astatine the World Cup and a full of 170 lucifer officials person been appointed, including 52 on-field referees.

The video adjunct referee (VAR) has go a arguable portion of the crippled since it was archetypal introduced successful 2016 and it has been utilized astatine the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Here, Sports Mole answers whether VAR volition beryllium utilized astatine the 2026 variation of the tournament.

Will determination beryllium VAR astatine the 2026 World Cup?

VAR volition beryllium utilized passim the tournament, with FIFA appointing 30 specializer video lucifer officials, including Premier League referee Jarred Gillett.

Those specializer officials volition enactment the on-field referee by utilizing video footage to reappraisal incidents and connection proposal to their colleagues.

The 2018 World Cup successful Russia was the archetypal clip VAR was utilized astatine a World Cup, with FIFA stating aft the radical signifier that 95% of decisions were made correctly connected the tract and the power of VAR accrued that occurrence complaint to 99.3%.

"We person ever said that VAR doesn't mean perfection - determination could inactive beryllium the incorrect mentation oregon a mistake - but I deliberation you would hold that 99.3% is precise adjacent to perfection," FIFA's referees committee president Pierluigi Collina said astatine the time.

Will determination beryllium immoderate changes to VAR astatine the 2026 World Cup?

A fig of changes person been made up of the World Cup, with VAR acceptable to beryllium fixed the powerfulness to intervene connected corners and yellowish cards successful summation to penalties, reddish cards and goals.

The International Football Association Board (Ifab) approved proposals astatine their yearly wide gathering that volition let VAR to get progressive if it feels a country oregon a 2nd yellowish paper has been fixed incorrectly.

Semi-automated offside exertion volition besides beryllium utilized astatine the World Cup, which should velocity up offside checks and marque them much accurate, portion goal-line exertion volition beryllium utilized to assistance referees determine whether a extremity has been scored oregon not.

Countdowns volition besides beryllium introduced for extremity kicks, throw-ins and substitutions successful a bid to chopped down connected clip wasting.

Former adjunct referee Darren Cann, who worked arsenic an authoritative astatine the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, told BBC Sport of the changes: "With Ifab ratifying the usage of VAR to cheque the validity of country kicks astatine the World Cup, different competitons whitethorn travel suit - provided the reappraisal tin beryllium completed instantly and without delaying the restart.

"That rider is important arsenic the travel of the crippled is truthful integral, and further delays would not beryllium welcome. In practice, corners tin astir ever beryllium rapidly checked earlier they are people taken - arsenic we saw during the palmy proceedings astatine the Arab Cup successful December.

"Having spent galore hours sitting adjacent to video adjunct referees watching dozens of matches, I tin accidental it is simply a slick, seamless process to rapidly ascertain that the country was correctly awarded by the on-field referee squad (or otherwise). Ifab and Fifa - understandably - privation to debar a concern wherever a wrongly awarded country results successful a extremity being scored.

"As 99% of corners tin softly beryllium checked successful the inheritance with nary hold to the match, it is simply a sensible solution and could perchance forestall a state from being knocked retired of this summer's World Cup arsenic a effect of a wrongly awarded corner."

Every referee astatine the 2026 World Cup

• Ramon Abatti (Brazil)
• Omar Al Ali (United Arab Emirates)
• Yusuke Araki (Japan)
• Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia)
• Pierre Atcho (Gabon)
• Dahane Beida (Mauritania)
• Juan Gabriel Benitez (Paraguay)
• Juan Calderon (Costa Rica)
• Raphael Claus (Brazil)
• Ismail Elfath (United States)
• Espen Eskas (Norway)
• Alireza Faghani (Australia)
• Drew Fischer (Canada)
• Cristian Garay (Chile)
• Katia Garcia (Mexico)
• Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)
• Alejandro Hernandez (Spain)
• Dario Herrera (Argentina)
• Abdulrahman Al Jassim (Qatar)
• Jalal Jayed (Morocco)
• Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh (New Zealand)
• Istvan Kovacs (Romania)
• Francois Letexier (France)
• Ning Ma (China)
• Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
• Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)
• Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
• Maurizio Mariani (Italy)
• Hector Said Martinez (Honduras)
• Amin Mohamed (Egypt)
• Oshane Nation (Jamaica)
• Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)
• Michael Oliver (England)
• Kevin Ortega (Peru)
• Tori Penso (United States)
• Yael Falcon Perez (Argentina)
• Joao Pinheiro (Portugal)
• Cesar Ramos (Mexico)
• Andres Rojas (Colombia)
• Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)
• Sandro Schaeerer (Switzerland)
• Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)
• Anthony Taylor (England)
• Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)
• Facundo Tello (Argentina)
• Abongile Tom (South Africa)
• Khalid Al Turais (Saudi Arabia)
• Clement Turpin (France)
• Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela)
• Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)
• Felix Zwayer (Germany)