FIFA: No Evidence Ball Hit Wire Before England's Goal
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- FIFA stated there is "no evidence" the ball struck an overhead wire before England's equalizing goal against Norway in their 2-1 World Cup quarterfinals victory on Saturday.
- The sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the "heartbeat of the ball" during the play in minute 45+2, FIFA said; by rule, a wire contact would have stopped play and resulted in a drop ball.
- Norway goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland took the goal kick that appeared to clip a cable suspending a robotic camera, and the ball was eventually played to Jude Bellingham, who beat Nyland with a low shot to the far post for the tying goal.
- Erling Haaland, coach Ståle Solbakken, and Nyland confronted referee Clement Turpin of France about the play as the teams went into halftime.
- The same Connected Ball sensor ruled out a potential equalizing goal for Croatia in their earlier loss to Portugal after detecting the ball had touched a Croatian player.
- Video assistant referee Jerome Brisard worked the VAR role in both the England-Norway match and the Argentina-Egypt quarterfinal — the latter a 3-2 Argentina win in which Egypt saw a 58th-minute goal disallowed and complained of unfair officiating.
Why it matters: The Connected Ball sensor — already used to rule out a Croatia goal earlier in this tournament — is now the technology FIFA is citing to dismiss Norway's complaints about the wire contact, while the same human VAR, Jerome Brisard, has drawn officiating complaints from two different losing quarterfinal teams (Norway and Egypt) in the same round.
