FIFA Says Brief Technical Outage Hid Offside Graphic During Switzerland Penalty vs Qatar

Gary Neville called FIFA a "dictatorship" after offside technology graphics failed to appear during a penalty decision in the Switzerland versus Qatar match. The incident occurred in the 14th minute in the San Francisco Bay Area. Remo Freuler received a headed pass from teammate Breel Embolo and was fouled by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada inside the penalty area.

VAR officials reviewed the incident and allowed the penalty to stand. Embolo converted the spot kick to give Switzerland the lead. Television replays showed Freuler had moved beyond the last defender when he received the ball.

Neville said the absence of the graphic raised questions because FIFA controls the host broadcast and holds the automatic decision evidence. "We all think it here and everybody will think it at home. Fifa are the host broadcaster.

They've got the evidence of the automatic decision, which they can show us. Why are they not showing us? They did this in the last tournament," Neville said. Pundits Ian Wright and Duncan Ferguson both stated that Freuler appeared offside to the naked eye.

FIFA issued a statement attributing the missing graphics to a brief technical outage during the 14th-minute incident. The statement said the outage prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated ahead of the penalty. FIFA added that the issue was quickly resolved and that the VAR workflow was not affected and followed normal procedure.