The controversial moment came just before Jude Bellingham equalised for England in the first half
Norway head coach Stale Solbakken questioned the build-up to Jude Bellingham’s first goal in the World Cup quarter-final match between his side and England.
He said that the ball had hit one of the overhead cables used to suspend a robotic camera, before Bellingham shortly equalised in the first half. However, Fifa said there was no evidence that it happened.
Why does that matter?
Under the laws of the game, if the ball makes such a contact with an object not part of play, then play should be restarted with a drop ball. Solbakken is arguing that the goal should have been ruled out.
Fifa’s defence is that the ball’s built-in sensor does not show that there was any contact, even though the trajectory of the ball in the air looked like it had been altered.
The governing body claimed that “the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the ‘heartbeat of the ball’ when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball”.
Before England’s goal in minute 45+2 against Norway, the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the ‘heartbeat of the ball’ when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball. pic.twitter.com/gYf9ukfveT
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) July 11, 2026
Solbakken approached the referee, Clement Turpin, after the first half to raise the incident. Norway eventually lost 2-1 after extra time, ending an excellent tournament in which they reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time this century.
“He said that he didn’t see it himself and that he didn’t get any message that it actually happened,” Solbakken said. “Since Fifa says that there was no touch, he can’t do anything about it. But the ball fell down straight in front of the bench, so it did. Everyone saw what happened. I think it’s pretty clear that it did. It was a strange thing.
“I can sit here and cry but I don’t want to do that. We have done everything we could – the players have been phenomenal throughout the tournament. OK it was bizarre but it’s part of football and why it is the best sport in the world because things like that can happen. We have to accept it.
“It was unlucky for us. The ball fell straight down from the sky, so it takes this direction. It became a misunderstanding among our players, and it was a bad moment for us. We can’t do anything about that. I don’t think we will play the game again, so that’s how it is.”
England’s head coach, Thomas Tuchel, said he had heard the claims but said the match-ball technology was enough evidence, pointing to an earlier World Cup match in which Croatia had a late goal ruled out after the sensor detected a slight touch from a teammate’s hair before the scorer, who had been onside from the original cross, received the ball.
“There’s a chip in the ball and it can tell you if a hair can touch it, as you know from the Croatia-Portugal game,” Tuchel said.
