FIFA has confirmed a “brief technical outage” meant that no onside animation graphic was available during the VAR check that cleared Breel Embolo to convert the penalty in Switzerland’s 1-1 World Cup draw with Qatar.
Breel Embolo scored a 25th goal for his country, putting the Swiss ahead from the spot after Mahmud Abunda took out midfielder Remo Freuler contenting for Embolo’s flick on, before a VAR check confirmed that the former was onside.
Notably, though, without any animations of the new semi-automated offside technology in action to serve as evidence for viewers of it having aided the video assistants in making the correct decision.
In an official statement, FIFA said: “During the Qatar vs. Switzerland match in the San Francisco Bay Arena, a brief technical outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty in the 14th minute.
“The issue was quickly resolved. The workflow of the VAR was not affected by this issue and followed the normal procedure in checking the onfield decision [of onside].
“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.”
Semi-automated offside, which has been used in leagues including Serie A and La Liga, as well as the Champions League, was first adopted in the fifth round of the 2025/26 FA Cup.
It is designed to make the judgement of tight offside calls easier for officials by rendering key parts of the process automatic.
A set of cameras monitor numerous key elements involved in any tight offside decision, including thousands of “surface mesh data points on the bodies of all 22 players” to track their precise movements and that of the ball.
The officials themselves also monitor the automatic process before deciding whether it has come to the correct decision, hence the term ‘semi-automated’, therefore attempting to remove the subjective element of calling offside with the naked eye.
Gary Neville, who was serving as a pundit for ITV during their coverage of the game, likened FIFA to “a dictatorship”, and refused to accept the decision – which to some appeared incorrect upon first glance – without the on-screen graphics to support it.
He said: “Why are they not showing us? They did this in the last tournament. Fans are already distrusting of FIFA and technology to start with. There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove me different. “
“It’s like a dicator. Honestly, it’s like a dictatorship, this,” the former Manchester United defender added. “The idea that they hold this evidence internally and don’t show fans of countries that are playing in tournaments. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
