A strong surprise has been revealed regarding the sending-off of Swiss national team player Breel Embolo against Argentina in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which concluded a week ago.
Argentina's national team faced its Swiss counterpart in the quarter-final round of the World Cup, where Lionel Messi's squad secured an exciting 3-1 victory.
In the second half of the match, Swiss player Breel Embolo received a second yellow card and was subsequently sent off following a Video Assistant Referee intervention.
The incident began when Argentina's Paredes was shown a yellow card for a challenge on Embolo, before VAR intervened and applied the mistaken identity rule.
Accordingly, Paredes' yellow card was rescinded and awarded to Embolo for simulation, resulting in his sending-off as it was his second yellow card of the match.
According to the global network "The Athletic," the International Football Association Board, responsible for setting the laws of the game, clarified that the mistaken identity rule may not be used in cases of simulation, as occurred in the World Cup.
The Board explained that the rule is applied solely to identify the player who committed an offense, and not to review the offense itself or alter its nature, as in cases of player simulation.
Consequently, VAR is authorized to assist the referee in applying the mistaken identity rule only when there is a clear and obvious error on the field or a serious incident that was missed, when issuing a yellow or red card to the wrong player.
The network reported that, based on this, VAR committed a grave error in the Argentina-Switzerland match by intervening in the Paredes-Embolo incident, rescinding the first player's card and awarding it to the latter, leading to his sending-off.
It was not correct in that case to rescind Paredes' card, as there was no error in identifying the player, and the incident was converted from a foul to simulation in an example of the incorrect application of the aforementioned rule.
