The new VAR rule which could feature at the World Cup for first time

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VAR could adjudicate over corner decisions at next summer’s World Cup

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Football’s lawmakers may grant Fifa its own VAR rulebook for next summer’s World Cup as they explore the possibility of allowing tournaments to run their own trials of new rules.

The International Football Association Board (Ifab) are looking into allowing short-term trials for tournaments, thus providing an alternative to the system that only allow measures to be introduce after they have been trialled in minor leagues or competitions.

If this change is taken up, the 2026 World Cup could be the first to use VAR on corner kick decisions.

The technology would adjudicate whether the ball had fully crossed the line and which team’s player had last touched the ball.

The proposals for reviews of incorrectly-awarded corners was met with a mixed response by a technical panel for the game’s lawmakers last month, but there remains a desire for the trial from some of the powers.

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They argue for the benefit of introducing a safety net against the possibility of wrongly awarding a set-piece that leads to a goal and influences the result of an important match, with some at Fifa keen for such an insurance rule for the World Cup final to spare potential embarrassment.

There is the risk of adding extra delays, however, with stoppage time already reaching double digits in some games of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The introduction of this rule would peak the interest within the Premier League, with Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche among those to bemoan the lack of reviews after his side were stung twice by wrongly-awarded corners.

However, any trial would not see VAR protocols rewritten across the board and thus won’t be carried over into other competitions, such as any European top flight.

Other rules that have been discussed sees the extension of reviews to second yellow cards and, more radically, declaring the ball “dead” if a goalkeeper saves a penalty kick, but both of these seem far less likely to gain enough traction.

Allowing short-term trials for new rules would need to be approved at Ifab’s annual general meeting in March.

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