The most talked-about change is a new power for VAR referees to check a straightforward football decision most fans assumed was already reviewable: the second yellow card. From the 2026-27 season, if a player is dismissed for two bookable offences, the video assistant can step in on the second caution and recommend the red be overturned, but only if the award of the foul itself was a clear and obvious error.
VAR still cannot suggest a second yellow that was never given, and the Premier League has kept its high bar for intervention. The Football Principles for 2026-27 again state that the “Referee’s Call” stands unless, in the opinion of the VAR, the evidence readily available shows a clear and obvious error.
Set-piece fouls now open to review
The second headline change targets the messy grey zone before every corner and free-kick. VAR can now review a foul committed before a set-piece is taken, but only when it directly leads to a goal, a penalty or disciplinary action. In practice, that means an attacking foul spotted in the box after a corner produces a goal can now be recommended for cancellation and the corner retaken, closing a loophole that has frustrated defenders for seasons.
Video officials also gain formal authority in cases of mistaken identity, allowing decisions such as a handball wrongly punished against the opposite team to be corrected on the recommendation of the VAR.
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What VAR will still not touch
Just as important is what the Premier League has left off the list. Clubs declined the IFAB option to have VAR review incorrectly awarded corners, and they opted out of a proposed protocol allowing red cards for players covering their mouths during confrontations. Diving cautions also remain outside the reversal process.
Behind the scenes, the league is trying to make VAR simply faster. Improved semi-automated offside technology is the flagship efficiency measure, aimed at cutting the long waits that have defined some of the most contentious calls of recent seasons, and the Professional Game Match Officials board is layering in further training on referee announcements and in-stadium communication.
Straight red reserved for deliberate hair-pulling
The VAR overhaul sits inside a wider push to speed up matches and clean up player behaviour. Officials will now issue a straight red only when hair-pulling is “a clear and deliberate action to pull an opponent’s hair with excessive force and/or brutality,” Sky Sports reported, with a yellow the default when force falls short of that threshold. Three players were sent off for hair-pulling in 2025-26, driving the review.
Elsewhere, goalkeepers face a five-second countdown on throw-ins and goal-kicks, with possession handed to the opposition if they overrun it. Injured players must now leave the pitch for at least a minute rather than 30 seconds, substituted players get 10 seconds to walk off, and a new tactical-timeout trial forces a manager to nominate an outfield player to leave for a minute whenever a goalkeeper is treated.
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Defenders will also be watched more closely for holding at corners, and challenges on goalkeepers where the attacker shows no intent to play the ball will be punished more firmly. The Premier League has kept its “less is more” line on handball.
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