FOOTBALL – A NEW refereeing protocol has added to the powder keg of public perception over fairness at the World Cup, a former Fifa referee said yesterday, with another refereeing controversy involving Argentina adding fuel to fan complaints.
The defending champions’ passage to today’s semi-final has been accompanied by repeated complaints from opponents over refereeing decisions, amid social media speculation that the tournament has favoured Lionel Messi’s side.
The saga came to a head on Saturday in Argentina’s quarter-final defeat of Switzerland, as Breel Embolo was sent off for a second yellow card for simulation, a VAR rule that Switzerland’s coach Murat Yakin called “unacceptable.”
Reuters has contacted Fifa for comment.
The protocol over mistaken identity is one of several incidents for which VAR is allowed to intervene under rules applied to the 2026-27 season and the World Cup, putting a largely untested protocol up for public debate on sport’s biggest stage.
“I don’t think it should have been applied in the first place. It was too broad,” said Christina Unkel, British broadcaster ITV’s rules analyst for the World Cup and a former Fifa referee.
“And where I’m struggling with it is we’re not just changing who gets the card, we’re changing the underlying decision from a free kick going this way to saying no, no, no, it’s actually a decision completely opposite way. So we’re changing the basis of the decision.
“And to me, that is where we are now officially, I think, in the re-refereeing area that VAR has been fighting to try to stay out of.”
That the protocol benefited Argentina – who social media critics have dubbed “VARgentina” – only seemed to stoke the flames of fan outrage.
“This new expansion of the protocol without testing it, without really knowing that that’s what they wanted it to do... it’s just like a powder keg,” Unkel said. “I’m just waiting for the final lynchpin.”
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