How does VAR work in the Premier League

VAR in the Premier League reviews four match-changing decisions: goals and whether a goal should stand, penalties and whether they should be given, direct red cards, and cases of mistaken identity. It does not review every incident, it reviews the four categories, and it only intervenes on a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident. VAR arrived in the Premier League in the 2019/20 season, semi-automated offside technology followed in April 2025, and for 2026/27 the system gains the power to review a second yellow card that resulted in a red.

What VAR can review

The review scope is narrow on purpose. VAR checks four things:

• Goal and no goal: whether a goal should stand, including offside in the build-up, a foul or handball by the scorer or an attacking player, and whether the ball was out of play.
• Penalty and no penalty: whether a penalty should be awarded or overturned, including handball and fouls in the box.
• Direct red card: whether a straight red card was correct, or whether a red card should have been given but was not.
• Mistaken identity: when the referee cautions or sends off the wrong player, VAR can correct it.

The category boundary is where people get confused. VAR cannot review a yellow card, cannot give a yellow card for an incident the referee waved on, and cannot intervene on a corner that was wrongly awarded, because corners are outside the reviewable categories. For 2026/27 there is one notable extension: VAR may now review a second yellow card, but only when it resulted in a red card. It still cannot issue a yellow card itself, and it cannot review a second yellow that was never given.

How the review process works

The VAR team works from a control room with access to all broadcast camera angles, but the protocol is designed to keep the referee in charge. For most reviews, VAR checks the incident and tells the referee whether an error was clear and obvious. The referee can then change the decision based on the VAR's information, or go to the pitchside monitor to review it himself.

The referee goes to the monitor for the subjective calls: penalties, red cards and the incidents where the interpretation matters as much as the footage. Offside and the objective questions are resolved with the semi-automated technology and communicated without a monitor visit, which is why a disallowed goal can stand with no visible delay in the modern game.

The key design decision is that VAR exists to fix clear errors, not to re-referee the match. A tight penalty call that the referee gives and the footage cannot clearly overturn stays given. It is an error-correction system, and judging it on how many decisions it changes is judging the system against the wrong metric.

Semi-automated offside technology

The Premier League introduced semi-automated offside technology in April 2025, at Matchweek 32, after UEFA used it in the Champions League from 2022/23 and FIFA used it at the World Cup in Qatar. The technology uses tracking data to locate the ball and every player automatically, draws the offside lines in seconds, and produces a 3D visualisation of the call for the broadcast.

It does not change the offside law. It changes the measurement: the lines that used to be drawn frame by frame by a human operator are now generated from the tracking data, which makes the calls faster and removes the subjective judgement from where the line falls. The calls themselves still follow the same law, with the same second-last-opponent reference point.

What VAR cannot do

The list of things VAR cannot do is as important as the list of things it can. It cannot review yellow cards, which means a second yellow that was never shown cannot be corrected unless it produced a red card, the one 2026/27 extension. It cannot give a penalty for an incident the referee did not penalise unless it is a clear and obvious error. It cannot award a goal for a corner that was wrongly given, and it cannot rescind a red card shown for a second yellow unless the review applies.

The Premier League has also confirmed it will not adopt the optional laws that would extend VAR into areas like wrongly awarded corners. That position is worth repeating because at least one outlet has reported the opposite: the Premier League's own statement is authoritative, and VAR in England remains limited to the four reviewable categories plus the second-yellow review.

Where VAR connects to the rest of the game

VAR decisions are part of the officiating context that shapes a season, and they feed the same fixture and live data our site tracks. Offside, the decision that semi-automated technology handles fastest, is explained in full in our offside guide, including the "Wenger offside" trial that is running in the Canadian Premier League rather than the Premier League. The scoring rules that a disallowed goal affects are covered in our FPL scoring guide, and every match that ends in a VAR review can be checked on our live match centre and fixtures page.

FAQ

What decisions can VAR review? Four categories: goals and no goals, penalties and no penalties, direct red cards, and mistaken identity. For 2026/27 it can also review a second yellow card that resulted in a red.

When was VAR introduced in the Premier League? It arrived in the 2019/20 season. Semi-automated offside technology followed in April 2025, at Matchweek 32.

Can VAR give a yellow card? No. VAR cannot issue a yellow card for an incident the referee did not book, and it cannot review a second yellow that was never given. It can only review a second yellow that actually resulted in a red card.

Does VAR review corners? No. Corners are not one of the four reviewable categories, and the Premier League has confirmed it will not adopt the optional laws that would extend VAR to wrongly awarded corners.

Key takeaways

• VAR reviews four categories: goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity, plus a 2026/27 extension to second yellows that produced a red.
• VAR corrects clear and obvious errors; it does not re-referee subjective calls that the footage cannot clearly overturn.
• Semi-automated offside technology arrived in April 2025 at Matchweek 32, after UEFA and FIFA used it first.
• VAR cannot give yellow cards and cannot review corners, and the Premier League has confirmed it will not adopt the optional corner-review laws.
• The referee remains in charge: subjective calls go to the pitchside monitor, while objective offside calls are resolved by the tracking technology.