Controversy over Jude Bellingham’s goal vs Norway after FIFA’s Sky Cam ‘assist’

4 min readUpdated: Jul 12, 2026 07:37 AM IST

Norway's Erling Haaland protests as England's Jude Bellingham celebrates scoring his side's opening goal in their FIFA World Cup quarter-final football match in Miami. (Photo: AP)

England’s 2-1 victory over Norway at the FIFA World Cup was marred with controversy after the American broadcaster of the World Cup, Fox Sports, raised doubts over the ball hitting the wire of FIFA’s Sky Cam in the build-up to England’s equaliser. Norway were leading 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup quarter-final when Jude Bellingham scored an equaliser in the second minute of added time in the first half at Miami.

Fox Sports posted a clip of the sequence leading up to the goal, where it claimed that when Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland took his goal-kick the ball seemed to hit the thin wire of the FIFA Sky Cam, which is suspended over the stadium for an aerial overview of the game. The ball then fell to an England player, and a couple of passes later Bellingham scored England equaliser.

Erling Haaland, Norway’s top scorer at the FIFA World Cup 2026, was among the players who was seen pointing at the sky after the goal along with Nyland. Norway coach Stale Solbakken was also spotted having words with the referee Clement Turpin of France.

After the game, in a response to a social media post, Haaland’s father Alf-Inge wrote on X: “Well done Bellingham and referee.”

On their broadcast, Fox World Cup host Rebecca Lowe said: “The ball actually is touched by the cable attached to the cable camera above the stadium. It comes back very quickly to England. Two passes later, it goes to Jude Bellingham and in the back of the net. Now, afterwards, Ståle Solbakken, the manager of Norway, not happy with the referee. The goalkeeper, of course, as well, as he’s pointing up and saying it touched the cable on that cable camera. The manager of Norway pointing as well. Erling Haaland, not happy either.”

Loew added: “We’ve spoken to Mark Clattenburg, our rules expert, and he said if the ball touches any outside object, then the whistle should go, and it should be a dropped-ball.”

According to the rules, the game should have restarted when the ball made contact with the wire since it’s an outside object.

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FIFA, on its part, tried to dismiss the controversy with a clip it posted on its social media handles.

“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 wrote along with the clip.

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. pic.twitter.com/gYf9ukfveT

— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) July 11, 2026

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Andreas Schjelderup had scored for Norway in 36th minute to give them the lead, which Bellingham’s controversial goal cancelled out in the 45+2 minute.

The game went into extra time as both teams were deadlocked at 1-1 after 90 minutes. Bellingham went on to score England’s winner in the first period of extra time.

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The game also saw both teams having a goal disallowed. Harry Kane’s goal with the last kick of the first half was called offside while Torbjorn Heggem’s goal in the 56th minute was disallowed after a VAR review because of a foul by Erling Haaland on Elliot Anderson in the lead up to the goal.

England also had a penalty kick decision overturned by the VAR.

England will now await the winner of the game between Argentina and Switzerland.