AYE RIGHT!
Hurst’s shot DID cross the line — but English would say that, wouldn’t they?
JULY 30, 1966. 101 mins, WEMBLEY STADIUM. ATT: 96,924
IT IS not as if they are touchy about it or anything. Heaven forfend that anyone should accuse our nearest and dearest footballing rivals of harbouring the inevitable doubts of the true fanatic.
If Sky Sports really needed to unleash their full armoury of technological gizmos, gadgets and official Dr Who time-travel machinery to ‘ prove’ something previously held forth as irrefutable fact, though, it does make you wonder.
Still, football only began when Sky started showing it on telly. Which presumably adds weight to their ‘final verdict’ on the muchdisputed Geoff Hurst extra-time goal in the World Cup Final back in... erm, 1966 wasn’t it?
All kidding aside, opinions on whether Hurst’s effort actually crossed the line at Wembley have always depended on where it was viewed from.
If you were watching it in England, then the ‘ Russian’ linesman got it spot on. It was seen rather differently in West Germany or, dare we say it, Scotland.
Credit to Sky for filling their normal Monday Night Football slot with something novel, though, with their use of statistical data from Opta, their own SkyPad touchscreen and virtual reality — the clue to its reliability is in the name — from video games experts EA Sports adding some fresh fun to an old debate.
Sportsmail’s Jamie Carragher and Sky’s Ed Chamberlin studied the action from Wembley Stadium 50 years ago, when England beat West Germany 4- 2 after extra-time, to become champions of the world for the first and — so far — only time.
Sky’s treatment naturally proved beyond doubt that Hurst’s second goal of the game did cross the line and showed how his West Ham United team-mate, captain Bobby Moore, delivered a sublime performance at both ends of the pitch.
Carragher said: ‘There has been so much talk about whether the ball crossed the line. ‘ Our technology was able to prove once and for all that it did cross the l i ne when Geof f Hurs t fired in the goal, via the crossbar, that gave England a decisive 3-2 lead in extratime (vindicating the award of a goal by linesman Tofiq Bahramov, who was actually from Azerbaijan).
‘The Germans can’t complain any more.’
Carragher added: ‘I grew up listening to stories about what happened during the game.
‘But it was fascinating to be able to give it the treatment we do for games in the Premier League now.
‘Take the performance of Moore. Could you imagine how much we would be raving about a central defender if he did that in a World Cup Final now?
‘We pay so much attention to numbers in this day and age, it often gets forgotten how good the giants of previous generations were.’