FIFA may reduce yellow card player suspensions at World Cup – Report

By Enitan Abdultawab

FIFA is reportedly planning to change how yellow card suspensions work at the 2026 World Cup to make things fairer for players.

BBC Sports reports that the suspension review is expected to be discussed at a FIFA Council meeting in Vancouver later this week.

Recall that under the current rule, if a player gets two yellow cards before the quarter-finals, they are suspended for the next match. But with the new World Cup format having 48 teams and more matches, FIFA believes this rule could lead to too many players missing important games.

To fix this, FIFA wants to “wipe” all yellow cards twice during the tournament — once after the group stage and again after the quarter-finals. This means players will start fresh at those points and won’t carry earlier bookings forward.

Under the proposed rule, players can still be suspended if they get two yellow cards, but only within certain stages. For example, a player would need to get two yellow cards during the group stage to miss a game, or two cards between the knockout rounds (from last 32 to quarter-finals).

FIFA believes this approach will reduce the chances of key players missing big matches like the semi-finals.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to be held between June 11 and July 19 in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.