When Frank Lampard's 'ghost goal' against Germany caused massive stir in football history

English football legend Frank Lampard is widely known as one of the best footballers of his generation, as his long and illustrious career as a player consisted of many iconic moments. Notably, Lampard went on to represent the Three Lions in a total of three FIFA World Cups, the 2006, 2010 and 2014 editions. Interestingly, one of the most remembered moments of Lampard’s international career came during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, when he was denied a goal against Germany.

During the Round of 16 match between Germany and England on June 27, 2010, England found themselves trailing at 2-1 at the 37th minute when Lampard came up with a brilliant strike. Lampard struck the shot hard from the edge of the penalty area, which struck the underside of the bar, as the TV replays showed the ball bouncing a yard behind Germany’s goal line.

To the much surprise of England and Lampard, the referee waved play on and had to bear the damage, before ending up on the losing side with a 4-1 margin. However, Lampard’s ‘ghost goal’ created a massive stir in international football, as FIFA and its referees were criticized for the standards. This followed the introduction of the goal-time technology during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the introduction of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Watch Frank Lampard's goal vs Germany that was never given:

A look at Frank Lampard's international career

Having made his debut for England in October 1999 at the age of 21-year-old, Lampard played a total of 106 games for the national team and returned with 29 goals. He played his last international game during the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil and ended his career as a player a few years later. He currently serves as the manager of Premier League team Everton and has also managed clubs like Derby and Chelsea after his retirement in 2017.

Semi-automated VAR offside technology to be used in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

With the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 scheduled to begin from November, the International Football Association Board (The IFAB), two weeks ago, announced that Artificial Intelligence-driven semi-automated VAR offside technology will be used in the forthcoming edition. Under the new technology developed by FIFA, the time taken to make an offside decision will be reduced to 3-4 seconds, while it took almost four minutes to arrive at a conclusion earlier.

Shedding his thoughts about the semi-automated VAR offside technology FIFA’s head of refereeing Pierluigi explained about the process. "It uses the same process as goal-line technology, and we have seen that is very well accepted by the football community, nobody comments on this. We are confident that the same reaction, in terms of acceptance, can be given to the semi-automated offside,” he said.

(Image: @England/Twitter/AP)