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The change was first used in the America-Paraguay game
Switzerland striker Brielle Embolo’s sending-off during Sunday morning’s 3-1 win over Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup sparked widespread controversy after Portuguese referee Joao Pinheiro overturned the yellow card he had shown the Argentines (video: Embo Leandro and awarded it to the Argentines).
Replays showed that Paredes did not commit a foul, while Embolo deliberately cheated to win a free-kick, which led to him receiving a yellow card and then a red card, as he had previously received a yellow card.
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What is the “mistaken identity” rule?
The “Mistaken Identity” rule is one of the cases in which the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is allowed to intervene to correct a referee’s decision.
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It stipulates that if a referee shows a yellow or red card to the wrong player, whether from the same team or the opposing team, the VAR can review the identity of the penalized player and correct it if it is proven that another player committed the foul.
IFAB law states that the review is limited to the identity of the player and does not extend to the nature of the offense itself, unless the incident already falls under review, such as a goal, a penalty or a straight red card.
When was it approved?
The rule first appeared in 2018 with the official introduction of video technology into the Laws of the Game and was primarily used to correct errors in the identification of players on the same team.
But on 28 February 2026, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) expanded its scope to also include cases where a player from the opposing team is cautioned for a foul, and the change has come into force at the current World Cup.
Why did it cause controversy?
Although the text of the law only talks about correcting a player’s identity, FIFA adopted a broader interpretation, considering that issuing a card to the wrong player allows for a full review of the case, including the detection of cases of fraud.
Critics believe that this interpretation deviates from the original text of the law, while FIFA believes that it achieves fairness and does not allow the wrong player to be punished.
The first two bids at the World Cup
The first application of the rule in its expanded form came in the USA-Paraguay game when American Tim Rehm’s caution was overturned and he was transferred to Paraguay’s Miguel Almiro after he was proven to have cheated the referee, before the second incident occurred this morning in Argentina-Switzerland.
The two incidents are similar in that the referee cautioned the wrong player and then VAR used the “mistaken identity” rule to award the card to the cheating player, a claim that has been upheld by FIFA while still being debated among a number of refereeing experts.
