{"id":3718,"date":"2026-06-17T07:14:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:14:30","slug":"world-cup-2026-the-var-decision-that-dumbfounded-the-worlds-best-refs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: The VAR decision that dumbfounded the world&#8217;s best refs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">It was a decision that stunned the world&#8217;s best referees.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">France forward Kylian Mbappe was on the attack against Senegal when he went down inside the box after a 58th-minute challenge by Sadio Mane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With the game goalless at the New York New Jersey Stadium, referee Alireza Faghani was sent to the pitchside monitor to look at the challenge again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He returned to the pitch and appeared to point to the penalty spot, much to the delight of the thousands of France fans inside the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, their joy was short lived as Faghani had actually signalled for a goal-kick, before he explained that Mbappe had initiated the contact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking on BBC One, Darren Cann &#8211; the 2010 World Cup final assistant referee &#8211; said: &#8220;My phone has blown up with messages from several of the world&#8217;s best referees who also can&#8217;t understand why a penalty wasn&#8217;t given.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin, at the game for BBC Radio 5 Live, labelled it a &#8220;rubbish decision&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Utter nonsense,&#8221; added Nevin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;No chance at all. How can he (Mbappe) have initiated the contact? The most nonsensical line I have ever heard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former England captain Alan Shearer, at the game for BBC One, said it was a &#8220;bizarre&#8221; decision not to award a penalty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t get it,&#8221; added Shearer. &#8220;You can see the lunge from Mane and his left leg catches Mbappe. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;How can Mbappe initiate contact if he is in front of him? It&#8217;s bizarre, it really is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a decision that stunned the world&#8217;s best referees. France forward Kylian Mbappe was on the attack against Senegal&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}