A World Cup official has risked controversy over a hand gesture caught on camera which could be interpreted as racist.

As you watch or read about the World Cup, there's a good chance that you'll see someone talking about VAR. But what is it? VAR is the use of the video assistant referee to review decisions made in a game for clear and obvious errors or missed incidents.

VAR has changed how soccer is officiated and it has new powers at the 2026 World Cup. Here is how the video review system works.

According to reports in Italy, VAR officials were allegedly influenced by external figures, such as referees’ chief Gianluca Rocchi, who used ‘coded messages’ to suggest whether to alert the referee on the pitch. Read Football Italia Ad-Free and get ...

In an analysis of a video-assisted, pitch-side review of soccer (UK football) referee calls in the English Premier League, referees overturned their original call 95% of the time. However, these decisions had no statistical link to crowd size, the score or ...