Norway’s World Cup adventure is over. England won the quarter-final in Miami 2–1 after extra time, but in the early hours of Sunday morning, it is not the result Norwegians are talking about. It is the camera cable.
Andreas Schjelderup had sent Norway into the heavens after 36 minutes when he surprised everyone with what appeared to be a cross towards Haaland, but instead curled into the top corner beyond Jordan Pickford. The strike from 20 metres was clocked at 113 kilometres per hour.
Then, in first-half stoppage time, the most incredible thing happened. A clearance from Ørjan Nyland apparently struck the cable supporting the spidercam above the pitch and dropped straight down to England’s Elliot Anderson. Two passes later, the ball was in the net, scored by Jude Bellingham. Nyland immediately ran towards the referee and pointed up at the camera, while Ståle Solbakken went straight into confrontation with referee Clement Turpin at the half-time whistle.
The Laws of the Game are clear: according to IFAB, play must be restarted with a dropped ball if the ball strikes an object that is not part of the game. NRK has examined the footage, which shows the ball suddenly changing trajectory before dropping towards the ground. In other words, the goal should never have stood.
Watch the video yourself:
Assistant coach Kent Bergersen explained the outrage at half-time.
– When Ørjan kicks the ball upfield, it hits the cable carrying the camera, Bergersen told TV 2, adding that the ball travelled much shorter than it should have and that the referee ought to have reviewed the incident.
NRK pundit Kristoffer Løkberg immediately reached for the strongest possible words.
– If this proves decisive, it will go down as one of the greatest World Cup scandals of all time, Løkberg said.
– Then we are looking at the greatest refereeing scandal of all time from a Norwegian perspective, added his NRK colleague Carl-Erik Torp.
In Dagbladet‘s studio, the verdict was equally uncompromising.
– It is ironic that the technology meant to help us is what ends up ruining things, said Erik Mykland.
– It is an absolutely outrageous scandal, said Bernt Hulsker.
The reactions did not stop at Norway’s borders. FOX Sports published images on X showing the ball striking the camera before the goal, and claims on social media that Norway had been robbed quickly went viral. BBC journalist Alex Howell also remarked that something did not appear right when Nyland ran towards the referee and pointed up into the air. FIFA rejects the criticism: according to Daily Mail journalist Mike Keegan, the governing body checked the sensor inside the ball and concluded that it had not made contact with the cable.
The controversies continued after the interval. Ten minutes into the second half, Torbjørn Heggem thought he had restored Norway’s lead, but following a VAR review the goal was disallowed for a push by Erling Haaland on Elliot Anderson. The decision prompted prominent journalist Duncan Castles to vent his fury on X, where he described the disallowing of the goal as absurd and claimed that FIFA’s VAR had once again favoured the larger nation. TV 2’s Simen Stamsø-Møller believed Anderson had gone down theatrically.
Norway were the better team in the second half, but the decisive moment came shortly after extra time began. Nyland parried a shot from Morgan Rogers, and Bellingham was on hand to score the 2–1 winner. That was how it ended. England advance to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the quarter-final between Argentina and Switzerland.
Norway return home from their first World Cup finals in 28 years with a historic quarter-final appearance, a victory over Brazil – and a feeling that will linger for a long time: twice in one evening, technology favoured England. A VAR system that found a push inside the penalty area failed to detect a ball striking a camera suspended above the pitch.