From ghost goals to VAR: the mistakes that changed the rules
Hurst's ghost goal in 1966 and Lampard's disallowed strike in 2010 pushed FIFA towards technology: goal-line tech arrived in 2014 and VAR in 2018.
For decades, football resisted technology. Two incidents at separate World Cups ended up changing everything.
The first came in the 1966 final at Wembley. With the score at 2-2 in extra time, Geoff Hurst shot, the ball struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced down on the line. Swiss referee Gottfried Dienst consulted his linesman, the Soviet Tofiq Bahramov, who awarded the goal. That 3-2 set England on course for the title, but modern studies concluded the ball did not fully cross the line.
The second episode was almost the reverse. In the 2010 round of 16, Germany led England 2-1 when, in the 39th minute, a Frank Lampard shot hit the crossbar and bounced clearly more than half a metre over the line. The goal was not given. It would have made it 2-2, but Germany went on to win 4-1.
The outrage was global and FIFA, which had resisted, changed its stance. Goal-line technology made its World Cup debut in 2014 in Brazil: the first goal it validated came in France-Honduras on 15 June 2014.
Four years later, at Russia 2018, the decisive step came with VAR (video assistant referee), which debuted at a World Cup that year. The first video-assisted decision came in France-Australia on 16 June 2018, with a penalty awarded to France. Football had finally entered the video age.
Source: Wikipedia (1966 FIFA World Cup Final; Goal-line technology; Video assistant referee).