Technology will play a bigger role than ever before at this year’s World Cup, and it’s largely thanks to Frank Lampard’s goal that wasn’t.
FIFA, which sanctioned goal-line technology at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, has gone a step further this year. In Russia, Video Assistant Referees will review potential game-changing incidents at each of the 64 matches.
The use of technology in Brazil had been authorized after a round of 16 match at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when Lampard, and just about everyone else, thought he scored an equalizer against Germany.
Only, the England midfielder didn’t.
Trailing 2-0, England managed to claw one back through defender Matthew Upson. The revived England team then rampaged forward in search of the equalizer and Lampard shot hard from the edge of the penalty area. The ball struck the underside of the bar and television replays showed it bouncing a yard behind the German goal line.
The referee, however, waved play on, a blow that England failed to recover from, eventually losing 4-1.
Then-FIFA President Sepp Blatter soon apologized and reopened the debate over goal-line technology.
For the Germans, however, it was perhaps poetic justice. In the 1966 final between England and West Germany, Geoff Hurst’s second goal had cannoned off the crossbar and adjudged to have crossed the line despite German protests. England went on to win that match 4-2.