VAR Football Explained: How Video Review Works

VAR, the video assistant referee, is a team of officials in a separate video room who watch broadcast footage and alert the on-pitch referee when a clear and obvious error may have happened. It covers four areas: goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity. The referee always makes the final decision. Our complete guide to the Laws of the Game places it within the wider rulebook.

This guide walks through each area with a match situation, notes where the rules limit what video can do and explains why VAR sometimes seems to ignore a foul. The rules described here are as set out in the sources checked for this article, which summarise the IFAB VAR protocol. The primary IFAB text itself was not checked.

What is VAR and who works in the video room?

VAR is an off-field referee who watches the match on several screens, with real-time access to multiple camera angles. A typical team is a VAR official, usually a current or former referee, three assistant VARs and a video replay operator. They sit in a separate room, can flag a possible error and recommend a change, but cannot make the decision themselves.

The system differs from review schemes in hockey or cricket, where teams request a check. In football the VAR team monitors play continuously and alerts the referee when it judges a wrong decision may have been made. The referee can also ask for a check, but only after making a decision. Because VAR works in the background, many checks never reach the stadium at all.

Imagine a goal celebrated in the stadium while the video room quietly checks the build-up. The referee may hear nothing, or may hear a recommendation to look again.

What can VAR review?

There are four main categories. Goals: VAR can check offside, a foul, handball or the ball being out of play in the attacking move before a goal. Penalties: it can check both penalties given and penalties not given, such as contact in the box or a wrong foul. Direct red cards can be reviewed; second yellow cards can be reviewed only in a narrow case, explained below. Mistaken identity covers cases where the referee penalises the wrong player.

Picture a striker who scores after a team-mate handled the ball earlier in the move. VAR can look back through that attacking phase. Offside detail has its own page in our offside rule explainer.

Separately, in some competitions a clearly incorrect corner-kick award can be corrected, but only if that can be done immediately without delaying the restart. Corners are otherwise outside the four main categories.

Why does VAR only step in for a clear and obvious error?

Under the IFAB VAR protocol, as summarised in the sources checked for this article, VAR can assist only where there may be a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident. For subjective decisions, such as the force of a tackle, a borderline call stands. The referee's decision should change only when VAR judges the original call to be clearly wrong.

Factual points work differently. Whether a player was in an offside position, or whether the ball was out of play or inside the box, can be advised without an on-field review. That is why some reviews are quick and others take a long time, while judgement calls take longer to weigh.

What can VAR not overturn?

Ordinary yellow cards and routine fouls are not reviewed. A missed possible second yellow is not reviewed either. A second yellow can be looked at only where the caution is clearly incorrect and leads to a red card. Ordinary throw-ins are not part of the normal categories.

Timing matters too. VAR cannot stop play to recheck an earlier event. Goal, penalty and some red-card reviews look back through the attacking phase, but once play has restarted, a restart decision usually cannot be changed unless the laws allow it.

Goal-line technology is a separate tool that answers one question, whether the ball crossed the line; see how goal-line technology works.

Why didn't VAR check that foul?

Most often the incident sits outside the four categories, such as a routine foul or an ordinary yellow card. Even inside a category, VAR intervenes only for a clear and obvious error, so a close call judged on the pitch usually stands.

A review has steps. First comes a background check while play continues. Then VAR makes a recommendation. If an on-field review follows, the referee goes to the pitch-side monitor, draws a rectangle in the air and makes the decision. The final call always rests with the referee.

Some checks are silent: VAR looks, finds no clear error and never contacts the referee, so fans see nothing happen.