VAR and the Goalkeeper — How Video Review Changed Penalty Decisions

A penalty used to be the referee's first look and a keeper's next ten seconds. Video review split that into two jobs.

The on-field call can now be checked. The kick itself can wait while a monitor on the touchline decides whether the foul was inside the area, whether a handball was a handball, or whether the first decision should stand. IFAB approved video assistant referees as an option on 3 March 2018, after two years of trials. The 2018 World Cup was the first finals that used them. Keepers have been living with the pause ever since.

Here is what the protocol actually reviews, why more kicks started arriving, and what to do in the wait.

Why the screen arrived

Referees missed penalties and gave penalties they should not have given. Television already showed the pictures. The match did not change. After years of argument, IFAB tested a video assistant in live games from 2016. KU Leuven analysed the experiment. The Board then wrote VARs into the 2018/19 Laws as an option, not a requirement. Competitions still needed approval before they switched the system on.

The protocol is narrow on purpose. VAR looks at four match-changing situations: goal or no goal, penalty or no penalty, a direct red card, and mistaken identity. The phrase on the handbook is minimum interference, maximum benefit. The review is for a clear and obvious error or a serious missed incident — not for a second opinion on every 50-50 in the box.

The first World Cup VAR decision came on 16 June 2018. France against Australia. Andrés Cunha played on after Josh Risdon's challenge on Antoine Griezmann, then stopped, walked to the monitor, and awarded a penalty. In the final, Néstor Pitana used the same process for a handball and gave France a spot kick against Croatia.

What keepers learned: the first whistle is no longer the last word on a penalty. You still have to be ready for a kick that was not given thirty seconds ago.

More kicks, longer waits

The 2018 World Cup awarded 29 penalties. Twenty-two were scored. That beat the old finals record of 17 penalty goals, set in 1998. FIFA and independent reports put the jump on fouls the referee had missed in real time. David Elleray, then IFAB's technical director, said players would know they could not get away with the same contact.

Leagues that added VAR later saw the same pattern in their first seasons: more penalties, more reviews of contact in the area, more arguments about the threshold. The keeper's week changed in two practical ways.

First, volume. You train more spot kicks because more of them survive the check. A soft hold or a trailing arm that used to vanish in a scramble now sits on a screen.

Second, time. A review can take a minute or more. You stand on the line, or you walk, or you drink. The kicker watches the replay on the stadium board. The crowd tells you the answer before the referee points. None of that is a save. All of it is a new pre-kick routine.

Goal-line technology is a different tool. It answers one yes-or-no about the ball and the line. VAR judges fouls, offsides in the build-up, and handballs. Do not treat the watch buzz and the monitor walk as the same job.

What keepers learned: the wait is part of the kick. If you spend it arguing with the fourth official, you have already given the taker a head start.

The line the camera can measure

The other change sits on the goal line itself.

For years, keepers stepped forward before the strike. Referees let a lot of it go. After 2018, the same step was easier to prove. The 2019/20 Laws made the test clearer: when the ball is kicked, the keeper must have at least part of one foot touching the goal line, or in line with it if they are in the air. Standing in front of the line or behind it is an offence. Touching the posts, bar, or net before the kick is also an offence.

If you leave the line and the kick is saved or missed, the kick can be retaken and you can be cautioned. VAR can check that. Encroachment by outfield players who then touch a rebound is also reviewable. A save that used to stand can become a second kick because a foot was off the paint.

That is why modern keepers talk about "staying legal" before they talk about the corner. The dive still has to be right. The restart is void if the camera shows you cheated the line.

Gloves sit in the same place they always did. Soft latex helps a stretched hand hold a kick that arrives late and low. Dried or dirty foam turns that hold into a rebound the taker follows in — and a retake is a bad time to discover the palm is glazed. If the high-quality foam is still there, wash, dry, and apply Keeper Balm. That conditions new foam and restores dried, salty latex. Pros use it too. Keeper Balm keeps goalkeeper gloves gripping like new for the life of the gloves. Replace the pair when the foam is worn through or torn. Glove Glu is for damaged latex, not for a palm that is only dry.

A monitor does not restore tack. It only decides whether the first kick counts.

What to do with the information

Treat the first decision as provisional. If the referee plays on in the box, stay in the game. A VAR check can still walk him back to the spot.

Use the wait. Reset your feet. Pick a size. Watch the kicker's run-up when he finally walks in, not the replay on the board. The plant foot still tells you more than a stadium groan.

Stay on the line. One foot can move. Both feet off the line is how a good dive becomes a retake. Do not bounce so far forward that the camera has an easy still.

Do not grab the post. The 2019 wording put that in the procedure for a reason. A shaken net is a delay you do not need.

Keep a clean palm for the second kick. Reviews and retakes mean you may face the same taker twice. A glazed glove that spills the first save will not improve on the replay.

Sunday pitches still exist without VAR. The law of the penalty did not change for those games. Twelve yards, a line, a kick. You are still the person who has to dive.

The bottom line

Video review did not invent the penalty. It changed how often the kick is given and how long you stand there before it. IFAB allowed VARs in 2018. The World Cup that summer used them, awarded 29 penalties, and showed keepers the new rhythm: check, wait, then save.

The keeper's job did not become easier. It became measured. Stay legal on the line. Use the pause. Hold the ball if you reach it. Look after the palm that has to do that work: wash, dry, and apply Keeper Balm. It keeps goalkeeper gloves gripping like new for the life of the gloves. Pros use it too. Replace the pair when the latex is worn through or torn — not when a screen handed you a second kick you could still have stopped the first time.