For more than four hours, the football world waited for evidence that never came. A semi-automated offside system, hailed by Fifa as the most accurate ever, suffered a "brief technical outage" that left one of the most contentious decisions of the World Cup unresolved — and conspiracy theories raging.
The moment came in Saturday's Group B match in Santa Clara, as Switzerland and Qatar drew 1-1. With the scores level, Swiss midfielder Remo Freuler was brought down in the box by Qatar goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada. The referee pointed to the spot, and Breel Embolo converted the penalty. But the question that stuck was not about the foul: was Freuler offside in the build-up?
“Fifa blames technical outage for delay in VAR offside evidence after Switzerland's equalising penalty against Qatar.”
Under the old system, grainy replays would have sparked debate. But Fifa had promised more. Before the tournament, world football's governing body scanned every player at the World Cup to create unique, lifelike avatars, designed to provide the most accurate illustration of offside decisions ever seen. In the opening games, the system had worked seamlessly. On Friday, when Tani Oluwaseyi was flagged offside before Bosnia-Herzegovina goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj clattered into the Canada striker, Fifa provided the semi-automated animation even though the VAR had not intervened. In Saturday's later game, the graphic appeared quickly for Morocco goalscorer Ismael Saibari against Brazil, despite no real question over offside.
After the Switzerland-Qatar match, however, the animation did not appear. Fifa released a statement blaming "a brief technical outage" that prevented the onside animation graphic from being generated. The statement insisted the workflow of the VAR was not affected, and that the lines used by the video assistant referee did not show the attacking player to be in an offside position. Two still images were released — but not the avatar pictures. They remain unconvincing.
"We all think it here [that it was offside]," Gary Neville said on ITV before the statement was released. "Everybody at home thinks it. Fifa are the host broadcaster and they have the semi-automatic decision that they can show us. There is a massive question over that because it is offside in my eyes until they prove to me different."
Delay, as Neville suggested, creates a vacuum. With no definitive proof, the unanswered question lingers: was Remo Freuler offside? Fifa's technology was supposed to end such doubts, but instead has given them new life.