How the yellow card suspensions rules work in the 2022 World Cup

Yellow cards — given to soccer players when they commit a foul or penalty that’s a little more egregious or aggressive — can affect the current game in which they’re handed out. After all, two yellows in a game means a player is sent off.

But in the World Cup, they’re also cumulative.

First: Two yellows in a match and an ejection means an automatic suspension for the next game.

Second, and just as noteworthy: Two yellow cards accumulated over the course of the opening rounds by one player will also lead to a suspension.

The good news? If you get one yellow card in the opening group rounds, it’s wiped off the board after the quarterfinals.

There’s one other thing to note: As part of the tiebreakers for the group stage, there’s a “Fair Play tiebreaker.” Our Andrew Joseph explains:

Though this is super rare, we’ve seen this tiebreaker come into play recently in two-way ties. Basically, if all the other tiebreakers are exhausted without a winner, the team with the better disciplinary record in the group stage moves on.

In 2018, Japan advanced to the Round of 16 — edging out Senegal — only because Senegal picked up two more yellow cards than Japan.

The Fair Play system also applies here if three teams make it through all the previous tiebreakers.

It’s really a terrible way to break a tie because it values subjective officiating decisions over actual on-field performance.

There you have it!