England were 2-1 down to Germany in the round of 16 in Bloemfontein in 2010 when Frank Lampard let fly. His shot crashed down off the crossbar, bounced behind the goal line and spun back out.
Replays were clear. The ball had been over the line by something like a metre. The Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved play on. No goal.
It would have been 2-2. Instead England stayed behind, and Germany ran away with it. The final score was 4-1, and England were out of the World Cup.
What changed after Lampard's ghost goal?
Quite a lot, as it turned out. FIFA President Sepp Blatter publicly apologised to England after the match. FIFA had resisted goal-line technology for years, and after Bloemfontein the resistance was hard to keep up. The incident led directly to goal-line technology being introduced at the 2014 World Cup.
That makes it perhaps the most consequential bad decision in football history. England were denied an equaliser in a match they went on to lose badly, and the sport was forced to change how it officiates the most basic question in the game: did the ball go in?
- Match: Germany against England, round of 16, 2010
- Venue: Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein
- The decision: referee Jorge Larrionda waved play on
- The result: Germany 4-1, England eliminated
- The legacy: goal-line technology at the 2014 World Cup
A wrong call in South Africa ended up making sure nobody else suffered the same one.
Tomorrow: number 19.
