This is a list of all occasions where a football player was sent off from a FIFA World Cup match due to a foul or misconduct, either as a direct expulsion (red card) or as a second caution (yellow card) within the match.
This article includes all dismissals of players, substitutes, and substituted players since the first World Cup in 1930 and all dismissals of team officials since the 2022 World Cup. The use of physical red and yellow cards to respectively indicate dismissals and cautions was first introduced at the 1970 tournament for players, substitutes, and substituted players; this practice has been extended to team officials since the 2022 tournament.
Statistics Plácido Galindo was the first player to be sent off in a World Cup match, playing for Peru against Romania in a 1930 match officiated by Alberto Warnken. Although physical red cards were introduced from 1970, they were not put in practice until the 1974 World Cup, when referee Doğan Babacan sent off Chile's Carlos Caszely during a match against West Germany. Two players have received red cards twice: Cameroon's Rigobert Song (1994 and 1998) and France's Zinedine Zidane (1998 and 2006). Six dismissals have taken place during final matches: Argentina's Pedro Monzón, Gustavo Dezotti (both 1990), and Enzo Fernández (2026), France's Marcel Desailly (1998) and Zinedine Zidane (2006), and John Heitinga of the Netherlands (2010). Only six dismissals have been shown in a FIFA World Cup opening match: Cameroon's André Kana-Biyik and Benjamin Massing against Argentina in 1990, Bolivia's Marco Etcheverry against Germany in 1994, and South Africa's Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane alongside Mexico's César Montes in 2026. Uruguay's José Batista received the quickest red card, in the first minute in a game against Scotland in 1986. A few expulsions either took place after the final whistle of the match or were awarded to players at the substitutes' bench (or both), and thus did not reduce the number of players on the pitch during the game. Two of them, that of Leandro Cufré of Argentina (vs Germany, 2006) and that of Denzel Dumfries of the Netherlands (vs Argentina, 2022), took place after the penalty shoot-outs of knockout matches, making them the latest red cards. Three goalkeepers have been sent off in the tournament: Italy's Gianluca Pagliuca (1994), South Africa's Itumeleng Khune (2010), and Wales's Wayne Hennessey (2022). There have been 10 dismissals for the hosts: Chile's Honorino Landa (1962) Mexico's Javier Aguirre (1986) USA's Fernando Clavijo (1994) France's Zinedine Zidane, Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly (1998) South Africa's Itumeleng Khune (2010) Russia's Igor Smolnikov (2018) Mexico's César Montes and USA's Folarin Balogun (2026) The match with the most dismissals was Portugal vs Netherlands of 2006, when referee Valentin Ivanov dished out 4 red cards, 2 for each team. The referee who has sent off the most players is Arturo Brizio Carter, 7 red cards, in 5 different matches (also a record). Teams that have the greatest number of expulsed players are Argentina and Brazil, with 11 both. Argentina's players were sent off in 10 matches – also a record. The team whose opponents have received the most red cards is Germany (incl. West Germany), with 20 – in 18 different matches, also a record. The 2006 World Cup had the largest number of red cards: a total of 28 players were sent off (in 20 matches, also a record). There has been a total of 192 dismissals given to 65 teams/countries.
Notable incidents Of more than two dozen matches that had multiple player expulsions, a few are remembered for their exceptional violence and brutality: the "Battle of Bordeaux" (Brazil vs Czechoslovakia, 1938), the "Battle of Berne" (Hungary vs Brazil, 1954), the "Battle of Santiago" (Chile vs Italy, 1962), the "Battle of Nuremberg" (Portugal vs Netherlands, 2006), and the "Battle of Lusail" (Netherlands vs Argentina, 2022). During the 2006 final, French captain Zinedine Zidane was sent off after he famously headbutted Italy's Marco Materazzi in the chest, after a verbal provocation by Materazzi. This was the final act of Zidane's professional career, as he remained committed to his pre-tournament decision to retire after the tournament. France lost the final on penalties. During a 2006 match between Croatia and Australia, referee Graham Poll failed to send off Croatian player Josip Šimunić after the second yellow card, and only did so when he issued a third one, right after the final whistle minutes later. FIFA's report on the match initially listed all three bookings, but later the second one was removed; it is not known if the booking was retroactively overturned, if it was removed because it was erroneously given to Australia #3 (Craig Moore) or if this was done for report consistency purposes only. During a 2010 quarter-final against Ghana, with the score tied at 1–1 going into stoppage time of the second period of extra time, Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez was red carded after famously denying a goal-bound header with his hand. Ghana missed the resulting penalty and went on to lose the subsequent penalty shoot-out; with a victory they would have become the first ever African team to reach the final four of the competition. Only two World Cup dismissals have not been followed by the imposition of a suspension: at the 1962 tournament, the Chilean president Jorge Alessandri appealed to the FIFA disciplinary committee to not have Brazil's Garrincha suspended for the final, after the striker was sent off for violent conduct in the semi-final against hosts Chile; and at the 2026 World Cup, FIFA rescinded the automatic one-game suspension that United States striker Folarin Balogun incurred after being dismissed for during the round of 32 game against Bosnia and Herzegovina. A new rule was added for the 2026 World Cup, due to an incident in the UEFA Champions League: a player who covers his mouth during a verbal confrontation with an opponent receives a straight red card. The first player to be sent off was Paraguayan winger Miguel Almirón and the second sending off was Ecuadorian defender Piero Hincapié.
List of red cards Players Key Match had two red cards Match had three red cards Match had four red cards