How VAR Works: Reviews, Referees and Key Decisions

What VAR can review

VAR’s remit is limited to four principal areas:

• Goals and build-up incidents, including offside, handball, fouls and the ball leaving play.
• Penalty decisions, including whether an offence occurred inside or outside the area.
• Direct red-card incidents where a dismissal may have been missed or wrongly awarded.
• Mistaken identity, when the wrong player is punished.

The report also says World Cup reviews can extend to certain corner-kick decisions. VAR does not have the authority to re-referee ordinary fouls, throw-ins or routine midfield challenges.

The referee remains central

The VAR team checks relevant footage and alerts the on-field referee only when there may be a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident. Objective decisions, such as some offside calls, can often be resolved through the review team’s analysis. Subjective decisions, including many fouls and handball calls, usually require the referee to view the replay at the pitch-side monitor.

The final decision remains with the referee. That distinction is central to the system: VAR provides another angle and additional evidence, but it does not replace the official in charge.

Accuracy versus disruption

The strongest argument for VAR is its effect on major decisions. Premier League figures cited in the report put key decision accuracy at 82% in 2018-19, before VAR, compared with 94% in 2019-20, its first league season. More than 2,400 incidents were checked, while 109 decisions were overturned - roughly one intervention every 3.5 matches.

That balance explains VAR’s continuing role. It reviews many incidents but changes relatively few original calls, targeting moments that can decide matches.

The next challenge for the World Cup and Premier League is consistency: faster reviews, clearer communication and fewer interruptions while preserving the gains in accuracy.