1966 World Cup Final: The dubious second reason why football should never have come home

It's been 58 years of hurt for the England men's team after losing 2-1 to Spain in the 2024 European Championships final.

'Football's coming home' is the most chanted song by the England faithful in major tournaments, but England has only won one major tournament – the 1966 World Cup.

Should football have ever come home for England? They faced West Germany at Wembley in the '66 World Cup final, winning the game 4-2 after extra time in an extremely controversial fashion.

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According to the BBC website, the game finished 2-2 after 90 minutes, with Helmut Muller giving the West Germans the lead before Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters put England in front. Sigfried Held rescued the game for West Germany, scoring an equalizer in the 89th minute.

The infamous goal in the 1966 World Cup final was Geoff Hurst's strike that hit the bar and bounced on the line before jumping back into the German box. The ball famously never went over the line, but linesman Tofiq Bahramov indicated to the referee that the ball crossed the line.

England went 3-2 up in lucky fashion, and if VAR or goal-line technology were in place in 1966, then England would have still been drawing the game.

You can argue that it doesn't matter if Hurst's goal had been allowed or not because he scored again at the end of extra time. However, replays show that his fourth shouldn't have counted either.

According to the Football Offences Act 1991, it is an offense for fans to enter the pitch "without lawful authority or lawful excuse." Due to the encroachment of the pitch always being illegal, a game should stop for the authorities to deal with the person breaking the law.

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When Hurst carried the ball towards the German goal in the dying moments of extra-time, England fans started to run onto the pitch before he had a shot and scored the goal that sealed the game for England.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the moment was captured iconically by famous BBC broadcaster Kenneth Wolstenholme, who said: "And here comes Hurst. He's got... some people are on the pitch; they think it's all over. It is now! It's four!"

Hurst scored three on the day and was the only person to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final until Kylian Mbappe did it in 2022. With his second not crossing the line and third going in with people on the pitch, should football have come home for England?

With Gareth Southgate leaving the England job after getting the team to two major tournament finals, who will replace him and take England to the next step?

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