Machine learning experts at the University of Western Australia say simple physics shows that the controversial goal kick that halted Norway’s run at the 2026 FIFA World Cup did not hit the spider cam cable as angry players and fans had suggested.
Norway were leading 1-0 in the quarter-final match against England on July 11 when a ball kicked by goalkeeper Orjan Nyland in first-half stoppage time passed near a cable, then appeared to sink into the air and fall straight to the ground.
The ball fell to England’s Elliott Anderson and two passes later reached Jude Bellingham, setting up the equalizer, which some argue should not have been conceded. After extra time, England won 2-1.
Several Norwegian players immediately protested the goal, arguing that it should not have stood because the ball touched the cable and changed its trajectory.
According to the rules of the game, if the ball touches an outside object during play, the referee must stop play and restart with a dropped ball. Stare Solbakken and his team confronted referee Clement Turpin at half-time, and Solbakken later said the ball “fell straight from the sky.”
However, FIFA subsequently announced that the ball sensor did not register any contact and showed no peak in the “beat of the ball” when it was in the air, so there was no evidence that the ball had touched the overhead wires.
Associate Professor Ronnie Das, a data scientist at UWA Business School who specializes in machine learning sports analysis, said the controversy meant one measure not accessible to the public went against the national team’s word.
“However, the broadcast footage is publicly available and contains enough information to independently verify the claims,” Associate Professor Das said.
“Since neither side has published data to support their position, I decided to conduct a scientific analysis.”
Associate Professor Das screen-recorded the broadcast clip and manually annotated each frame of the ball’s flight. A total of 200 annotations were made over approximately 50 frames to measure the flight of the ball relative to three fixed pitch landmarks.
“No detectable impact was found. The flight was a single smooth curve consistent with normal aerodynamics, uniquely corroborating FIFA’s sensors,” Associate Professor Das said.
“Physics also explains why players honestly saw the ball fall from the sky. Due to air resistance, long kicks cause the ball to fall more quickly than it rises.”
“Spin further bends the path due to the Magnus effect, which is a phenomenon in which a rotating object moving through a fluid experiences a lateral force that bends its path.
“While the expression that the ball ‘falls straight from the sky’ is an accurate perception, a steep drop is a characteristic of normal ball flight and is not evidence of interference.”
