The Peninsula
The World Cup has recorded many important moments and milestones throughout history, some of which have led to changes in the laws of the game and the adoption of pivotal decisions by FIFA, the international association responsible for organizing the most prestigious tournament.
Among the most important developments in the laws of football is the adoption of the red and yellow penalty cards used to communicate a caution or a sending-off from the pitch.
Both cards were not known before the 1966 World Cup in England, when many events occurred and necessitated means to discipline players for misconduct during the game. Before that, cautions and dismissal of players had been made orally by the referee of the match, which caused misunderstanding due to different languages. This prompted English referee Kenneth George Aston to propose the yellow and red penalty card system based on the same principle as used on traffic lights.
During the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, the idea of yellow and red cards was first adopted on an experimental basis. The actual implementation began at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The first case of a yellow card in the history of football was recorded by German referee Kurt Tschenscher during the 1970 World Cup against player Kakhi Asatiani. Then, 4 more yellow cards were announced during the same match. At the 1974 World Cup, Chilean player Carlos Casali made history after Turkish referee Dogan Babacan gave him a red card, becoming the first player to be sent off with a red card in his country's match against West Germany. At the 1990 World Cup, several teams took an approach to waste time during matches deliberately which affected the game. Accordingly, the FIFA considered a new law prohibiting the goalkeeper from holding the ball in his hand if it returned to him from one of his team's players.
Over time, this decision was developed, becoming that the goalkeeper has no right to have the ball in his hands for more than 6 seconds, otherwise he will get a caution and the opponent team will get a free kick from where the goalkeeper stands in the penalty area. This decision reflected positively on the next World Cup and the scoring rate rose to 2.71 goals per game.
At the 1982 World Cup in Spain, the FIFA introduced simultaneous decisive matches following the "Disgrace of Gijon", the name given to a 1982 FIFA World Cup football match played between West Germany and Austria at the El Molinon stadium in Gijon, Spain. The match was the last game of the first-round Group 2, with Algeria and Chile having played the day before. With the outcome of that match already decided and known, a win by one or two goals for West Germany at the expense of Austria would result in both West Germany and Austria qualifying instead of Algeria, which had defeated West Germany in the first game. The Germans scored the only goal within the first 10 minutes of the match, which progressively deteriorated towards near standstill in the second half. Spectators of the match accused both teams of fixing the outcome, although FIFA ruled that neither team had broken any rules.
As a result of this, and similar events at the previous World Cup in Argentina, FIFA revised the group system for future tournaments, so that the final two games in each group would be played simultaneously.
The penalty shootout method was also introduced in the 1982 World Cup in the semi-final between West Germany and France. In previous editions, the matches ending in a draw after extra time were repeated two days later.
Even specifications of the goal were modified. The 1994 World Cup in the United States witnessed the first incident of its kind after the goal broke and had to be replaced during the quarter-final between Bulgaria and Mexico. Following this incident, the FIFA decided to set several standards in the installation of stadiums and identified a certain type of high-safety metal to install the goal in all stadiums.
In the old days, World Cup matches were held without a switch between players. The 11 players had to complete the match till the end. In Mexico World Cup, the hot weather fatigued many players, which prompted the FIFA to give teams the opportunity to switch one player. Over time, the number of substitutions rose to two and then to three. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FIFA decided to raise the substitutions to five temporarily to ensure the participation of the largest number of players.
Other new amendments approved by the FIFA following COVID-19 include the increase of the number of players included in the lists of teams participating in Qatar 2022 from 23 to 26 players. The measure aimed to deal with the repercussions of the pandemic and the exceptional timing at which the World Cup competitions will be held.
In order to avoid skepticism in the calculation of offside, Qatar 2022 introduced a semi-automated technology to detect offside to help match referees and avoid any errors that may affect the results of the matches.