Former Norway World Cup star Erik Mykland has lashed out at what he described as a 'complete scandal' following Norway's 2-1 quarter-final defeat to England in the 2026 World Cup. The match, played at Miami Stadium, saw England advance to the semi-finals after Jude Bellingham scored an opportunistic winner in extra time. Norway had taken the lead in the 36th minute when Andreas Schjelderup's miscued cross was misjudged by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, but the lead lasted less than 10 minutes.
Controversial goal sparks fury
Bellingham's equalizer, which came in first-half stoppage time (45+2 minutes), was initially celebrated as a superb finish capping a flowing move involving Elliot Anderson and Anthony Gordon. However, replays appeared to show the ball striking one of the stadium wires suspending the spidercam system. FIFA later issued a statement claiming their Connected Ball technology detected no peak in the 'heartbeat of the ball' when in the air, indicating no contact with the wire. 'Before England's goal in minute 45+2 against Norway, the sensor in the Connected Ball showed no peak in the 'heartbeat of the ball' when in the air, and therefore no evidence that the ball touched the overhead wire and changed the movement of the ball,' FIFA Media tweeted.
Mykland: 'Technology is destroying us'
Erik Mykland, who represented Norway at the 1998 World Cup and played for Panathinaikos, was livid. 'It's a complete scandal,' he told Norwegian outlet Dagbladet. 'It's ironic that the technology that's supposed to help us is destroying us.' The controversy added to Norway's frustration, as they also had a goal disallowed 10 minutes into the second half when Torbjorn Lysaker Heggem's effort was ruled out by VAR after Anderson was judged to have been pushed by Erling Haaland before a corner kick.
Tuchel admits England were lucky
England head coach Thomas Tuchel acknowledged his team's fortune. 'We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today,' he said. 'The result is fantastic. We are in the last four. It's amazing but not happy with the performance – in every sense. The commitment is there but we made life difficult in the way we played – sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today. It's not the mentality. This is pure mentality. You can bottle it up and sell it. It's about the quality – we need to play better.'
IFAB rules on spidercam contact
According to IFAB's Law 8, if the ball makes contact with an outside agent such as a spidercam wire, play is stopped and the ball is dropped for the team that would have retained or gained possession had play not been stopped, at the location where the interference occurred. Despite Norway's protests, FIFA's technology found no evidence of contact, allowing the goal to stand.
