Ghost goal

Ghost goal (or phantom goal) is a term used in association football to describe a questionable decision, usually involving incertitude or controversy as to whether a ball crossed the goal line or not.

Background

The term arose from a quote by the then Chelsea manager José Mourinho following the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, ultimately decided by a single goal by Luis García, awarded by referee Ľuboš Micheľ, but dubbed a "ghost goal" and described as "a goal that came from the moon" by Mourinho.

Television replays were inconclusive as to whether the ball crossed the line or not. Micheľ said that his decision was based on the reaction of the assistant referee, and had he not awarded Liverpool the goal, he would have had no other alternative but to award them a penalty kick and send off Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech for a foul on Milan Baroš.

After studying a series of still images of the incident, motion expert Dr Mike Spann concluded that Micheľ had made the correct decision by signaling a goal.

The positioning and body movements of Chelsea's William Gallas, who tried to clear Luis García's shot with his right foot, as well as the movement of the ball relative to Gallas, led Dr Spann to conclude: "It was a goal."

After the 2005 incident, both "ghost goal" and "phantom goal" have been used to describe similar incidents.

Notable incidents

The term has been recently applied to a number of questionable decisions. A goal was awarded to Reading against Watford in a 2-2 Championship draw in September 2008 by referee Stuart Attwell, despite the ball having passed wide of the mark. A similar accident happened in a Bundesliga 2. match between MSV Duisburg and Eintracht Frankfurt when Christian Tiffert took a shot that hit the crossbar and landed 1.5 meters outside of the goal-line yet was still awarded as a goal. Conversely, during a Championship game in August 2009 at Ashton Gate, Crystal Palace's Freddie Sears put the ball in the net, hitting the stanchion at the back of the goal, but rapidly bounced out. A goal was not awarded. This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in a match involving the South London club, however; during a match away to Coventry City on 6 September 1980, Clive Allen took a free-kick which thumped against the right-hand stanchion inside the goal (from Allen's view) before coming back out again. After much arguing and consulting with his linesman, the referee decided that the ball had not crossed the line. Another notable ghost goal came in a game between Bolton Wanderers and Queen's Park Rangers on 10 March 2012, when QPR's Clint Hill headed the ball in from close range, crossing the line by a couple of yards, before Ádám Bogdán was able to palm the ball onto the crossbar and out. The goal wasn't spotted. This eventually lead to the Football Association calling for Goal-line technology to be implemented as soon as possible.

1966 World Cup Final

Geoff Hurst's "Wembley Goal" during the 1966 World Cup final

Main article: 1966 FIFA World Cup Final

With eleven minutes of extra time gone and the game tied at 2-2, Alan Ball put in a cross to England striker Geoff Hurst, who swivelled and shot from close range. The ball hit the underside of the crossbar bounced down on top of the line before being cleared away by the German defenders.

The England players celebrated a goal, but the referee Gottfried Dienst was uncertain if it had been a goal. He consulted his linesman, Tofik Bahramov from the Soviet Union; after non-verbal communication, as they had no common language, the Swiss referee awarded the goal to the home team. The crowd and the audience of 400 million television viewers were left arguing whether the goal should have been given or not.

Bakhramov, from Azerbaijan, became famous and celebrated in English popular culture as "the Russian linesman", as Azerbaijan was part of the USSR at the time, and the nickname stuck to the point where his real name was all but forgotten. When England played the Azerbaijan national team in a World Cup qualifier in October 2004 — in a stadium named after Bakhramov — many England fans travelling to the game asked to be shown the grave of the official, who had died in 1996, so that they could place flowers on it, and before the game a ceremony honouring him was attended by Hurst and other footballing celebrities.

In England, supporters cite the good position of the linesman and the statement of Roger Hunt, the nearest England player to the ball, who claimed it was a goal and that was why he wheeled away in celebration rather than attempting to tap the rebounding ball in.

According to the Laws of the Game the definition of a goal is when "the whole of the ball passes over the goal line". The Germans argue that if that were the case, it would likely have bounced from there into the net, not out on the field as it did. In addition, German players claimed to have seen chalk dust, which would indicate it was not a goal. The English counter by saying that the backspin put on the ball after hitting the crossbar could just as likely have caused the ball to bounce behind the line and then back out of the goal. Roger Hunt claimed to have seen the ball bounce behind the line.

When Bakhramov wrote his memoirs, he stated that he believed the ball had bounced back not from the crossbar, but from the net, so the further movement of the ball was already insignificant, and not visible for him either so it did not matter where the ball hit the ground anyway. Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst did not see the scene. Commentators such as Robert Becker of Kicker magazine accuse the linesman of bias because the German team eliminated the Soviet team in the semi-final. To add more controversy to the tale, Bakhramov, according to lore, was asked on his death bed how he knew the ball crossed the line. He replied, "Stalingrad."

However, a study conducted by the Engineering Department at Oxford University concluded that the ball did not cross the line entirely and that it was 6 cms away from being a goal. In Germany it led to the creation of the expression Wembley-Tor, or "Wembley-Goal", a phrase used to describe any goal scored in a similar fashion to Hurst's.

Furthermore, there exists colour footage of Hurst's goal, taken from another angle by an amateur filmer situated on the stands and having a view almost parallel to the English goal line. This film material appears to show quite clearly that the ball did not cross the goal line in full.

England vs Germany at the 2010 World Cup

Ghost goal during the England vs Germany game at the 2010 FIFA World Cup

On 27 June 2010, England were playing Germany in the knockout round of the 2010 World Cup at Bloemfontein in South Africa. In the 38th minute, just 53 seconds after Matthew Upson had scored, Frank Lampard shot the ball and it hit the underside of the crossbar, resulting in it crossing the line into the goal and bouncing back into the field of play due to spin (without hitting the net). The goal was denied by the linesman. Had the goal been given, England would have drawn level at 2–2. Germany, where this goal was given names like "Wembley goal reloaded", "inverted Wembley goal" or "revenge for Wembley", went on to win the game 4–1.