VAR will punish World Cup divers retrospectively — but only if an opponent is wrongly booked

FIFA has endorsed a novel use of VAR at the 2026 World Cup that could see divers retrospectively punished — provided the player they deceived the referee into booking receives an incorrect yellow card in the same incident.

The precedent was set during the USA’s opening group game against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday. Paraguayan winger Miguel Almiron went to ground under pressure from US captain Tim Ream, convincing Dutch referee Danny Makkelie to award a free-kick and book Ream. Replays showed Ream had not made contact, and Almiron had thrown himself to the floor.

The game was halted moments later, mid-flow, when the giant screen displayed a VAR review for mistaken identity. Makkelie was directed to the pitchside monitor, reversed his decision, rescinded Ream’s yellow card, and booked Almiron instead.

VAR interventions are not permitted purely to review yellow cards — doing so would generate too many stoppages and disrupt the flow of matches. The technology can only overturn a card in relation to goals, penalties, red cards, or cases of mistaken identity. That last category was introduced following the 2014 Premier League incident in which Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs was sent off for a handball actually committed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The laws of the game specify that mistaken identity applies when “the referee penalises an offence but has clearly misidentified the player.” In the Almiron case, Makkelie had not misidentified Ream — he had simply misread the incident — yet FIFA is understood to be comfortable with how its officials applied the rule.

The Independent found no previous instance of VAR being used in this way to reverse simulation. FIFA’s only criticism of the handling was procedural: after Almiron was correctly booked, the restart should have been a drop ball rather than a US free-kick, as protocol requires when play is stopped mid-flow.

Crucially, the mechanism carries a significant limitation. Had Ream not been booked at all, there would have been no grounds under FIFA rules for VAR to conduct any review. The retrospective punishment of a diver is therefore entirely contingent on the referee first issuing a card to the wrong player.