Norway coach Starre Solbakken directly criticized FIFA just minutes after his team was sent to Thomas Tuchel’s England squad. In the World Cup quarter-finals in Miami, Norway took the lead in the first half, but Jude Bellingham equalized just before half-time and the Three Lions fought back.
However, England’s lead-up to the equalizer sparked controversy when the ball appeared to hit an overhead TV cable that had stopped the spider cam. FIFA released a statement saying it had investigated the incident but found no foul play and the goal stood.
Norway suffered again in the second half when Erling Haaland was seen to have pushed Elliott Anderson down during the build-up and their own goal was ruled out for chalk. Bellingham scored in extra time to take the 1966 champions into the last four and win England.
However, in his post-contest speech Solbakken said: “Everyone saw what happened. The ball fell straight down in front of the bench…and it touched the cable. There was nothing on the tip. What can you say to that? But the ball fell straight out of the sky…It was very obvious that it had been hit. It was a strange occurrence.”
Television replays showed the ball deflected slightly, which would be reason for the goal to be ruled out. Despite Solbakken claiming to have seen it on the touchline, he did not move and did not protest or protest to the referee.
FIFA said in a statement: “Before England’s goal in the 45+2 minute against Norway, the connected ball sensor did not show any peak in the ‘ball pulse’ in the air. There was therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wires and changed its movement.”
Regardless of the controversy, Tuchel was unimpressed with England’s overall performance. After the match, he commented to ITV: “I didn’t talk about suffering, and I never talked about suffering. We made life very difficult for ourselves.
“The result is great. We are in the top four, but we are not satisfied with our performance… in every sense of the word. We have made a very difficult life for ourselves, despite the commitment. We made a lot of technical mistakes. There were not enough repetitions. We were lucky today.”
