2026 World Cup Introduces New Rules and Technologies to Enhance Game Flow

LOS ANGELES — The referees chosen to work the 2026 World Cup have some new tools to speed up the games and ensure that any match-altering officiating mistakes are corrected. Among the many changes that fans will see during the World Cup: A substituted player must exit the field within 10 seconds. If there's a delay, the team plays a man down for at least one minute before the replacement can enter the field. There are now five-second countdowns for goal kicks and throw-ins. The team ahead at the end of a game is often slow to put the ball back in play. If a goalkeeper or defending player takes too long on a goal kick, the referee could award a corner kick to the other team. Likewise, if a player deliberately delays a throw-in, the opposing team could be given the throw-in instead. VAR, the video assistant referee, will have more opportunities to review calls during the game. These include the proper awarding of corner kicks, analysis to determine whether a player was in an offside position and a review of a second yellow card resulting in the send-off of a player. The chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, has long focused on time-wasting during games. At the last World Cup, four years ago in Qatar, he ensured that stoppage time was properly added during the competition. Some 90-minute matches saw as much as a half hour of added time. There's another technological improvement that viewers will notice at this World Cup: Officials will wear an eye-level video headset, so fans can see a replay of the action as the referee saw it during key decisions.