Question Number: 35860

Mechanics 1/12/2025

Zluvka of Liberec, Liberec Region Czech Republic asks...

Hi, can VAR intervene if a foul occurs during a restart before the ball is in play (such as a corner or free kick) and this foul has an impact on a goal being scored? Or is this completely ruled out because the ball was not in play? It seems to me that it would be in the spirit of the game to intervene. Thank you, Zluvka.

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Zluvka
Thanks for the question.
As always in Law there will be outliers of decisions. The important part is that whatever decision is taken is not an error in Law. As VAR is relatively *new* there are still learnings to be made and VAR official are constantly in training with new situations being provided for.

The Laws of the Game define the maximum period before and after an incident during which a decision can be changed because the Law 5 states that the referee may not change a decision on realising it is incorrect if play has restarted.This means that a restart decision cannot be changed once the game has been restarted.

As Law 5 does not allow the referee to change a decision once play has restarted, so if play stops after a potentially reviewable incident/offence and play restarts, no review is permitted except for ‘missed ’red card offences (except DOGSO and 2nd YC offences). The only possibility here for a review I believe is a red card event.

So my take on it is that if the offence happens clearly before the restart and it is clearly shown to be the case it is misconduct only and as the referee allows play to restart all that can be done is in red card offence situations where the player is dismissed after review yet if play has not been halted the goal has to stand unless of course something is seen while the ball is in play.

The VAR advice to referees and VAR officials is to halt play if in any doubt, tidy it up and then restart with a retake after dealing with the situation. Easy on paper yet not so easy in a game situation.
You will see many situations of referees halting a corner kick kick, free kick to go in to speak with players that are engaged in all sorts of pushing, shoving etc.
It is much easier if the offence or part thereof happens while the ball is in play.

Without VAR it can be easier as there can be doubt about the timing of the incident and what was seen by a match official. An assistant could opine that the offence happened during the restart which means the goal is disallowed for the foul, disciplinary action taken and restart with a free kick. That of course only works when the timing of the restart and the offence are very close.

So VAR is a unique protocol, strictly managed in a match context. For the vast majority of referees it is not a consideration and where it is in use it is guided by the VAR guidelines and by trained match officials.

Answer provided by Referee Peter Grove

Hi Zluvka,

Thanks for your thought-provoking query.

As far as I can tell, and according to the provisions in the laws, anything untoward that happens while the ball is out of play, would not be reviewable by VAR, unless it were a missed red card offence.

It's true that VAR can intervene if there is a foul in the buildup to goal but a) this cannot be a foul since it occurred when the ball was out of play and b) any goal subsequently scored would have come after the restart and VAR cannot go back to review incidents of this nature that occurred before a restart in play (except as mentioned, for red card offences).

As for the spirit of the game, where that is mentioned in the laws document, it is with the proviso that it can be invoked when something is not covered by the laws but here we have a situation where it is very clear that VAR cannot intervene for a physical contact incident that occurred prior to a restart (again, except for a red card).

Having said that, as my colleagues have pointed out this would actually, probably be easier to deal with if there were no VAR and it was just the match officials themselves, in which case as alluded to, the officials might well confer, rule out the goal and order a retake of the corner kick.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Zluvka,
I recall an incident that exactly mimics the very situation you're talking about! There was a corner kick about to be taken, now the referee hadn't whistled at all since the ball had left the field, because it was an obvious corner kick, a deflection off of the defender.
As the ball was being retrieved there was the usual Dogfight in front of the net as they all sought for advantage, territory or position. The ball was placed in the corner arc and the kicker raised his arm to indicate his team to get ready! As he started forward one of the attackers raised his back leg and caught the keeper right on the gonads with his heel. Now this occurred before the kick was taken! The ball was headed into the goal and the celebrations started were quickly quashed as the AR relayed this information to the referee.

The restart decision was nullify the goal, retake the corner kick and red card the kicker for the violent misconduct and reduce the attacking team a player ahead of the restart! This was because the AR had spotted it but did not have time to signal the referee thus it is information being passed prior to the free kick being taken and as such the free kick can be null and void. I hold the opinion the referee could have in the interest of fair play awarded a DFK out, claiming the VC heel kick occurred as the corner was taken not before and the red card send off would still apply but no 2nd chance. As my colleague mentioned timing has a lot to do with it. On TV though you deal in absolutes due to the video evidence, grassroots not so much! So VAR will NOT interfere for say a push or pull UNLESS the misconduct is a missed SEND OFF event which VC is!
Cheers