New yellow card rule to be introduced at 2026 World Cup

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

A new yellow card amnesty is set to be introduced for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and North America.

Under previous tournaments, there has been one yellow card amnesty at the quarter-final stage so any bookings accumulated before that stage are wiped off a player's record. If they receive two yellow cards before the quarters they will receive a one-match suspension.

However, the next World Cup has been expanded to 48 nations and so there is an extra knockout round between the group stage and the last 16.

As such, FIFA are planning to introduce a secondary amnesty after the group stage in addition to the one before the quarter-final stage.

It normally takes five matches to reach the group stage, while this tournament will be six, and FIFA is concerned that the extra fixture could lead to a flurry of suspensions.

BBC Sport reports that FIFA were also considering making it three yellow cards to earn a suspension instead of two, but the governing body felt the second amnesty was a fairer solution.

The new rules haven't been confirmed but will be a topic of discussion at the Fifa Council meeting in Vancouver this week.

New VAR rules set for World Cup

FIFA are also planning on introducing new VAR rules for the tournament.

Presently, only 'key match incidents' such as goals, penalties and straight red cards are addressed by the officials in the video booth, yet the responsibilities of these referees could be significantly expanded.

The International FA Board’s Football and Technical Advisory Panels (IFAB), which is made up of former players, coaches and referees, and is responsible for overseeing the laws of the game, held a meeting in October to discuss rule changes and it appears now they will be implemented.

Perhaps the most important alteration that was discussed is with regard to second yellow cards. There is no VAR intervention possible for mistaken identity incidents under the current laws, yet this could be amended.

VAR will also intervene if a corner-kick leads to a goal that replays show should have been given to the defending side.

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