2026 World Cup: FIFA disputes sky-cam wire contact as controversial calls help England past Norway
England rolled to a 2-1 extra-time win over Norway in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday — and they might’ve had an assist from the officiating. The Three Lions’ victory was slightly marred by a couple of tough calls — one missed, one called through VAR — that went against the Vikings.
After Norway took the lead in the first half, England’s Jude Bellingham equalized with a great goal in first-half stoppage time. But after halftime, Fox Sports showed that the ball clipped the sky-cam wire in the run-up to that goal, landing sharply at the feet of England’s Elliot Anderson.
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Norway goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland, who had cleared the ball before it hit the wire, tried to alert the referees to what had happened; manager Ståle Solbakken could later be seen doing the same.
The contact with the wire should have resulted in the game coming to a stop.
It’s unclear why the referee crew didn’t catch that given that the game balls are equipped with sensors that detect even minimal amounts of contact.
Via Martyn Ziegler of The Times, FIFA checked the data from the sensor but did not find any evidence of a collision.
Just 10 minutes into the second half, Norway appeared to find a go-ahead goal, with Torbjørn Heggem sending the ball home off a corner kick. But the goal was called back after VAR review, with referees citing a (somewhat soft) foul from Erling Haaland on Anderson.
The 1-1 draw after regulation led the game to go into extra time, where Bellingham found the back of the net again just three minutes into the first extra-time period. Norway continued to fight, but England’s defense and a few more apparent officiating mistakes — a missed corner kick, a potentially incorrect offsides call — were enough to hold the Vikings back from a late equalizer.
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England, which is seeking its first World Cup win since 1966, will now move on to the semifinals, where it will play the winners of the late game between defending champs Argentina or Switzerland.
