Do players miss the semi-final if they get booked in the quarter-final?
The 2026 World Cup knock-outs are nearing the final phase: the tournament’s final will be played on July 19.
On today is France vs Morocco, with either side vying for a spot in the semi-final, or, for Didier Deschamps’ men, yet another final appearance.
England will face Norway, Argentina will play Switzerland, and Spain will compete with Belgium, but how do booking suspensions work heading into the final few games across North America?
PLAY our FREE World Cup scores predictor HERE and WIN £1K
Do players miss the semi-final if you get booked in the quarter-final at the 2026 World Cup?
England prevailed in one of the finest wins in their World Cup history against Mexico at the Azteca earlier this week.
Norway secured their spot in the quarter-finals the day previous, with a classic underdog victory against Brazil, but many in the Three Lions squad enter the showdown in danger of a suspension.
In the knock-out rounds of the 2026 World Cup, suspensions via accumulated bookings are reset after the quarter-finals.
To make the contents of this article clearer, FourFourTwo have written a full breakdown of how suspensions via accumulated bookings work at the tournament.
The new rule means that players cannot miss the final through accumulated booking suspension in the semi-finals.
However, if a player receives their second card in two matches in the quarters, they will miss their next match.
Bookings were wiped after the group stage, meaning that a players’ cards seen prior to the knock-out rounds did not carry over into the later phases.
To be clear: if a player in the quarters has seen yellow in the Round of 32 or 16, and is booked again in the event, then they will miss the semi-final.
Players can only be suspended for the final by being shown red in their last four fixture, not through accumulated bookings.
France, Morocco, England, Norway, Argentina, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium are all competing with this in mind ahead of the semi-finals, when bookings will be wiped once more.
