- Hurst’s famous extra-time goal has been debated for nearly 60 years.
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It was one of England’s most important goals and would help the team win their only major trophy to date.
But Geoff Hurst’s 101st minute goal in the 1966 World Cup final has remained a source of debate for 58 years.
Hurst’s powerful shot bounced off the crossbar and was ruled by the referee to have crossed the goal line.
But since then, fans and pundits around the world have repeatedly asked the question: Did they cross the line or not?
Now, in an effort to settle the debate once and for all, MailOnline spoke to scientists about football’s most controversial goal.
In that classic match, England were leading 2-1 after 89 minutes before West Germany defender Wolfgang Weber scored a dramatic late equaliser.
With the score at 2-2 after 90 minutes, the final went into extra time, but undeterred, England continued to push for victory.
With 11 minutes remaining in extra time, England midfielder Alan Ball crossed from the right wing for Hurst to turn and fire in a shot from close range.
The ball hit the underside of the crossbar and rolled onto the turf, although exactly where it landed is still debated to this day.
In modern soccer, seven cameras constantly track the ball’s position in relation to the goal line, so even subtle calls can be ruled a goal (or not) within just a few seconds.
But in 1966, no such technology existed, and only a limited number of television cameras captured the event for us to scrutinize nearly 60 years later.
Dr Kei Bray, theoretical physicist and former scientific consultant to Southampton FC, told MailOnline that part of the problem today is a lack of camera angles.
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“Frankly I don’t believe any of the analysis or conclusions that have been drawn from the video of that famous goal,” said Dr Bray, who wrote a 2012 paper called “When is a Goal Not a Goal?”
“One camera is not enough, only by using two or more cameras can a three-dimensional representation be achieved.”
“In my opinion it’s impossible to say for sure that the ball completely crossed the goal line, but the referee awarded it a goal and that’s the end of it.”
In the mid-1990s, Ian Reid and Andrew Zisserman from the Oxford University School of Engineering published a paper looking at what they called “perhaps the most famous and most controversial goal in the history of football”.
By studying many frames from just two cameras, they created an approximate 3D projection of the ball perpendicular to the ground.
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They concluded that the ball had hit the ground on the line and, even taking into account the “terrible mistake”, was “three inches away from scoring”.
Prof Zisserman told Mail Online: “When we did this study in 1996 we determined that the ball had not crossed the line.”
However, they also pointed out the lack of viewing angle and potential movement of the camera (it is not in a fixed position), issues that may have influenced their conclusions.
Dr Kyle Ferguson, from the Centre for Sport Enterprise at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, said no study “can answer this question definitively”.
“There has been a lot of review from the industry and TV has tried to use technology to answer that,” Dr Ferguson told MailOnline.
“Today’s technology makes it possible to replay a game and review each play.
“But in those days, matches were decided by the umpires and their best guesses, so although the game was subjective, the match proceeded smoothly and calls were not reviewed.”
“Maybe the question isn’t whether it was a goal or not, but whether the game was better in the 1960s or the 2020s.”
Geoff Hurst went down after shooting and could not see anything, but later said that the reaction of his team-mate, centre-forward Roger Hunt, ensured that the ball had crossed the goal-line.
Hunt was about five yards from the goal and had a good view of the ball, but instead of trying to put the rebound in, he quickly raised his hands to indicate the goal.
“If you’re a great striker, your instinct is to score goals,” said Hurst, the only surviving member of England’s World Cup-winning team.
‘But he [Hunt] He raised his arms and shouted, ‘Goal!’ That was enough for me.”
Hurst, of course, scored another goal in the match, becoming the only player to score a winning hat-trick in a World Cup final.
So whatever conclusion one reaches about the controversial goal, Dr Reid points out, the outcome of the game “doesn’t change”.