The new powers of VAR were unveiled in the United States of America match against Paraguay this morning (Saturday).
Referee Danny Makkelie gave American defender Tim Ream a yellow card for a foul on Miguel Almiron, but the VAR chamber intervened and requested a video review due to “mistaken identity.”
Many fans were confused by the situation and hundreds of comments appeared on social media asking what had happened.
Specifically, the confusion arose because previously the VAR system could call out a referee for “mistaken identity,” but this applied to the rare cases in which a referee would confuse two players from the same team and give the wrong one a yellow card or a sending-off.
Starting with this World Cup, the definition of “mistaken identity” has been expanded.
The rules now state: “If a player is penalised or sent off and the offence was actually committed by the opposing team, the decision may be overturned.”
In this particular instance, the referees in the VAR room concluded that the “foul” was not committed by Ream, but by Almiron. There was no contact between Ream and Almiron, and Almiron went down and faked.
This too falls within the definition of a foul in this case, so Makkelie was called to review the video and in the end he overturned the card for Ream and gave it to Almiron, who also had no idea what was happening and how he had suddenly received a card.
