World Cup VAR Diving Call: Right Outcome, Wrong Rule
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Referee Danny Makkelie initially booked USA captain Tim Ream for fouling Paraguay's Miguel Almiron, but reversed the caution and booked Almiron for simulation after VAR Carlos del Cerro Grande sent him to the pitchside monitor, framing it as a "mistaken identity" correction.
- Well-placed sources told BBC Sport Makkelie's decision was wrong: Ifab's mistaken identity rule only covers the referee penalising the wrong player for the same offence, and a foul and a dive are different offences, so the law doesn't cover simulation.
- The VAR review came after Makkelie had clearly restarted play with a Paraguay free-kick, a protocol violation that raised the hypothetical of what would have happened had Paraguay scored from the set-piece.
- Mandatory three-minute hydration breaks were introduced by Ifab and Fifa in December "regardless of weather conditions," and have been criticised as unnecessary by USA coach Mauricio Pochettino and former West Ham boss Graham Potter, who called them puzzling in mild conditions.
- Phil Jagielka said the breaks effectively turn matches into "quarters" and could be tactically more valuable than half-time, since coaches can gather players and deliver instructions that would otherwise be drowned out by crowd noise.
- A five-second throw-in countdown is also being trialled, with Bosnia's Sead Kolasinac losing possession when Argentine referee Facundo Tello awarded Canada a throw-in for his slow restart, while the eight-second goalkeeper rule has been in force since August 2025.
Why it matters: If Fifa's referees are misapplying a brand-new law on the tournament's opening weekend — and the governing body has yet to clarify whether the diving reversal was valid — coaches and players cannot reliably prepare for how the new rules will be enforced across the group stage, undermining the stated goal of clearer, fairer officiating.
