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England had scored their equaliser. The English fans at Miami Gardens were going crazy, celebrating Jude Bellingham’s brilliant goal.
But then I noticed Norway’s goalkeeper Orjan Nyland was complaining to the referee, Clement Turpin of France. Then the half-time whistle was blown. Then the Norwegian bench was going wild with the fourth official, Alejandro Hernandez of Spain. Norway’s manager Stale Solbakken was definitely not happy.
FOX, who I am working for as a rules analyst at this World Cup, allowed me and the team to review why they were so upset. Then we saw it. That video clip. You’ve probably seen it on social media, too. The angle that shows the ball suddenly drop from the air. Hardly anyone knows the laws.
We all remember the beachball from Sunderland-Liverpool, right? When there’s outside interference? I started to wonder whether the ball here had hit something, such as the cables from the four corners carrying the ‘Spidercam’ suspended above the pitch. It didn’t have the normal trajectory as it dropped to the pitch and to the feet of Elliot Anderson from the angle we were watching.
From there, Anderson drove forward down for England before playing in Anthony Gordon, whose pass to Bellingham led to the leveller. So if the ball did strike one of these cables, it played a key role in England’s equaliser, and if the evidence was there to prove we had benefited from our own ‘Hand of God’ from above, this goal could not and would not have stood.
FIFA came out and told us that their sensors within the ball did not detect any interference. It can detect the slightest touch, we are told, so would have known if it had crashed into a tension wire.
Did the ball hit one of the spidercam wires before Jude Bellingham’s opening goal for England? A new angle risks a scandal at the World Cup
Norway head coach Stale Solbakken (right) was unhappy with the decision against them
For me, it looks like something happened but the technology does not back the argument.
I do feel for the VAR, Jerome Brisard of France. Would he have known to check for something so strange? Would he have had the angle available to verify if so? Would he have had the apparent sensor data to hand and even thought to consult the ‘Snickometer’ of football?
It was all over so fast with Norway kicking off again, and only then did we all have the benefit of time to analyse for ourselves. In Norway, they may be saying at least Dick Turpin wore a mask. In England, there may be some gratefulness that Clement Turpin was officiating this one and that something untoward wasn’t spotted.
England equalised in first-half stoppage time when Bellingham scored with this finish – but question marks remain about whether or not there was outside interference in the build-up
Bellingham and Co got the rub of the green overall, even if we hear complaints that the penalty awarded in real time for a foul on Djed Spence should have stood. Not for me. Spence stepped across and was looking for it. I agreed with that overturn via VAR.
England were fortunate that Erling Haaland placed two hands on Anderson at that corner from which Norway scored. The ball was not in play, and so the referee ordered the retake after rewatching what had happened, with Haaland giving him the reason to disallow. But I can definitely understand why Norway will feel as if key decisions did not go their way in this quarter-final.
England will be glad everything worked out for them once all was said and done, even if Thomas Tuchel wasn’t too pleased with the overall performance.
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