🤯 Fans sensed an offside scandal: FIFA speaks out on VAR blunder! | OneFootball

Qatar delivered the first real surprise last night and grabbed the country’s very first-ever World Cup point against Switzerland.

It almost got even more bitter for Germany’s neighbors, because the play that led to the penalty and Switzerland’s only goal (17th minute) was checked by the VAR for offside.

Online, especially on ‘X,’ users were in agreement: when Breel Embolo played the pass to Remo Freuler, who was then brought down illegally by Qatar keeper Mahmud Abunada, the midfielder was in an offside position.

To everyone’s surprise, the penalty was awarded despite the video review. And what was even more surprising: there were no replays, no onside graphic, and no famous calibrated line.

Because maybe the decision wasn’t 100 percent correct after all? FIFA has now tried to dispel that concern shared by many fans in a statement about the incident.

The TV graphic for checking the offside position could not be shown because of a technical malfunction. According to FIFA, however, the outage only affected the graphic display for the TV broadcast. The work of the VAR was not impaired at any point.

The review of the incident followed the regular protocol, FIFA said. According to FIFA, the lines used by the video referee showed no offside by a Swiss player in either of the two relevant situations before the penalty.

A short time later, the technical issue was resolved.

From the Swiss perspective, the penalty converted by Embolo ultimately saved the point, because in stoppage time the ball ended up in their own net off Muheim’s header, resulting “only” in the equalizer rather than a dramatic late defeat.

What do you think about the technical malfunction? Not a big deal, or is this something that simply must not happen? Write it in the comments!

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Alex Grimm - 2026 Getty Images