Ghost Goal - Incidents at International Level - 1966 World Cup Final

1966 World Cup Final

With 11 minutes of extra-time elapsed and the score level 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 bouncing down towards the line and bounced off the ground before being cleared away by West Germany's defenders.

The England players celebrated a goal, but referee Gottfried Dienst was uncertain if they had indeed scored. He consulted his assistant, Tofik Bahramov; 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 unsure whether the ball had crossed the line and whether the goal should have been given or not.

Bahramov, 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 almost all but forgotten. Bahramov also became famous in his home land. Azerbaijan's national football stadium was named after him and a statue was built. When England played the Azerbaijan national team in a World Cup qualifier in October 2004 — in the stadium named after Bahramov — 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 and that the ball had merely bounced on the goal-line. 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. Hunt claimed to have seen the ball bounce behind the line.

When Bahramov 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. Referee Dienst did not see the scene. Commentators such as Robert Becker of Kicker magazine accused the assistant of bias because the German team eliminated the Soviets in the semi-final.

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 cm 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.

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