If VAR had been in place during the first friendly match of the French against Brazil, it was not the case on Sunday night against Colombia in the United States. Another city, another stadium… and different rules. This Sunday evening for their second friendly match of the American tour against Colombia, the players of the French team did not receive the same treatment as during the victory against Brazil (2-1) three days earlier. Spectators could see it from the 13th minute of the game when Maghnes Akliouche – destabilized by Juan Cabal – collapsed in the Colombian penalty area… and nothing happened. Neither a whistle from referee Victor Rivas, nor a review of the action. And for good reason: VAR was not deployed at the Northwest Stadium in Landover.
No goal-line technology, and eight substitutions instead of five
On Thursday against the Seleção, video assistant refereeing was activated, and it even led to the expulsion of Dayot Upamecano, whose yellow card was turned into a red card after the referee went to review the images of the incident. The absence of VAR for Colombia-France is not the only change compared to the “usual” rules of official matches at the highest level. Goal-line technology was also not installed for the match. And the number of allowed substitutions was increased from five to eight. It should be noted that the cooling break of several minutes – before its general implementation at the 2026 World Cup – was indeed respected in the first half, even if Didier Deschamps had expressed some reservations about its implementation on Thursday evening.
