{"id":797369,"date":"2026-07-12T16:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/797369\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T16:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:19:10","slug":"norways-stale-solbakken-claims-ball-struck-cable-before-england-equaliser-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/797369\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s St\u00e5le Solbakken claims ball struck cable before England equaliser | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norway\u2019s head coach, St\u00e5le Solbakken, complained that England had benefited from the ball hitting an overhead cable before Jude Bellingham equalised in the World Cup quarter-final<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Replays appeared to show a Norway<\/a> goal-kick hitting a cable in the buildup, although Fifa released a statement saying a sensor in the ball showed no evidence it had touched.<\/p>\n

Solbakken, whose team lost 2-1 after extra time, confronted the French referee, Cl\u00e9ment Turpin, on the pitch after the official had blown for half-time. If a cable had been hit the game should have restarted with a drop ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that he didn\u2019t see it himself and that he didn\u2019t get any message that it actually happened,\u201d Solbakken said. \u201cSince Fifa says that there was no touch, he can\u2019t 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\u2019s pretty clear that it did. it was a strange thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can sit here and cry but I don\u2019t want to do that. We have done everything we could \u2013 the players have been phenomenal throughout the tournament. OK it was bizarre but it\u2019s part of football and why it is the best sport in the world because things like that can happen. We have to accept it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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\u2019t do anything about that. I don\u2019t think we will play the game again, so that\u2019s how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cables are used to suspend a robotically controlled camera. Fifa said: \u201cBefore England\u2019s goal … the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the \u2018heartbeat of the ball\u2019 when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s head coach, Thomas Tuchel, said he was aware of suggestions a cable had been hit. \u201cI heard that, but there\u2019s a chip in the ball and it can tell you if a hair can touch it, as you know from the Croatia-Portugal game<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That was a reference to a late Croatia equaliser being ruled out for offside after the ball was found to have flicked the hair of a teammate before reaching the scorer, who had been onside from the initial cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s head coach, St\u00e5le Solbakken, complained that England had benefited from the ball hitting an overhead cable before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-797369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}