Controversy runs amok as England advances over Norway on cable-influenced goal

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COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - JUNE 12: A cable tv camera is pictured during the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship Group B match between Denmark and Finland on June 12, 2021 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Martin Rose - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images) | UEFA via Getty Images

England won a hard-fought 2-1 battle over Norway in extra time, but the game probably should not have even gotten that far.

Jude Bellingham was excellent and had a brace, but his goal athe 45’+2’ mark probably should not have counted as the ball struck a cable for the overhead camera in the moments before the goal. Per FIFA rules, the play should have been blown dead.

As we know now, it was not, Bellingham eventually scored, and there will be a nation of angry folks stewing about it. AS journalist Joe Brennan broke the play down this way:

As the ball came down from a Norway free-kick to be controlled by an England player, it hit the overhead camera wire that suspends the spider-cam above the pitch.

According to the rules and confirmed by former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg, an analyst for FOX Sports, this should have constituted an automatic restart from the referee: “VAR can interfere if that contact of the ball on the camera cable is part of a reviewable incident, an attacking phase of play leading to a goal is part of the var reviewable incident. it should have been picked up the VAR.”

Given the fact that the officials missed it and it resulted in a goal, the VAR should have intervened to do so on his behalf. Despite the protests from the Norway players, the goal was not overturned and remained on the scoreboard.

Later, FIFA attempted to explain its stance, but essentially just blamed it on the sensor inside the ball:

Update: FIFA later provided a comment on the matter, saying that they had checked the data but received no peak on the graph from the connected ball heartbeat sensor, and therefore the VAR was not called in.

What is the point of VAR if it cannot intercede in this kind of play? That is a question that FIFA will have to answer — with or without the ability to blame it on a ball sensor.

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