FIFA Defends VAR After Offside Controversy in Qatar-Switzerland Draw

Qatar earned a historic 1-1 draw with Switzerland on Sunday at the World Cup, but the match was overshadowed by what social media called the tournament’s first VAR scandal. Switzerland scored from a penalty in the first half after a clear foul by Qatar’s goalkeeper inside the box, yet the replay made it appear the Swiss attacker who was fouled may have been offside when moving toward the ball.

Despite that suspicion, the VAR room did not call the referee to the monitor. The broadcast did not show proof that the player was onside using the special animation tool, the penalty stood, and Breel Embolo scored the opening goal. The replay image was published only hours after the match, prompting criticism from experts and rules-focused accounts.

FIFA later released its explanation and denied any offside error. It said a brief technical failure prevented the offside-line graphics from being generated before the 14th-minute penalty decision, but the problem was fixed quickly and did not affect VAR operations. According to FIFA, the lines used by the VAR officials showed that the attacking player was not offside in either of the two immediately preceding situations.

Still, online critics said the system itself had failed. Archivo VAR wrote that FIFA had made a mistake, arguing that the published image with the drawn lines showed the attacker’s foot on the line while the defender’s foot did not touch it.