FIFA Facing Further Scrutiny After Familiar Controversy Just Three Days Into World Cup

Fans were unimpressed with a statement attempting to explain the situation.

Saturday’s action featured a particularly confusing moment. | Fran Santiago/Getty Images

FIFA has pointed to a “brief technical outage” to explain the lack of evidence of the VAR decision that awarded Switzerland’s penalty in Saturday’s 1–1 draw with Qatar.

The Swiss were awarded a penalty 14 minutes into the game after Remo Freuler was brought down by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada. Replays appeared to show Freuler in an offside position, but a VAR check did not overturn the decision and Breel Embolo stepped up to score.

Amid widespread confusion over what appeared to be a clear offside decision, no replays were shown and no evidence was given, leaving many scratching their heads.

Hours after Qatar’s late equalizer and the final whistle, FIFA took to social media to defend the decision and explain the lack of footage. Unfortunately, that did little to end the confusion.

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What Did FIFA Say?

Remo Freuler appeared to be standing offside before the challenge. | Alex Livesey/FIFA/Getty Images

FIFA, having already faced scrutiny over public attempts to explain why public attendance figures did not match up against rows of empty seats visible on the first day of the tournament, took to social media to defend the controversial VAR decision.

“During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Area, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute,” a statement read. “The issue was quickly resolved.

“The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the on-field decision. The lines used by the VAR to check the position of the relevant players did not show the attacking player to be in an offside position in either of the two situations immediately before the penalty decision.”

The problem with that, however, was that the statement was accompanied by still images from the game which, even with the infamous offside lines drawn, continued to suggest Freuler was stood in an offside position.

During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Area, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty awarded to Switzerland in the 14th minute. The issue was quickly resolved.

The workflow of the VAR was… pic.twitter.com/ONpWxXDPE6

— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) June 13, 2026

FIFA uses semi-automatic offside technology at this World Cup, with audio alerts sent to assistant referees if a player is more than 10cm offside. Crucially, Freuler fell below that threshold, which meant a manual VAR check was needed.

The image of the offside incident is generated immediately, which is why many fans felt evidence of the decision should have been shown straight away, rather than several hours later.

“It’s like a dictatorship,” a frustrated Gary Neville told ITV’s coverage of the game. “The idea that they hold this evidence internally and don’t show fans of countries who are playing in tournaments is absolutely ridiculous.

“To not show the evidence of an offside ... prove to us that it’s offside! Show it straight away. Why not have transparency?”

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