Alfie Haaland, the father of Erling Haaland, has said that England’s 2-1 victory over Norway in the quarterfinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup was a robbery.
He said that the Norwegian team was subjected to numerous unfair refereeing decisions throughout the game.
The 53-year-old continued by stating that the referee prevented England from experiencing defeat, sarcastically saying he hopes that the Three Lions would win the trophy having benefited from the referee’s decisions in the quarterfinal.
He wrote on X, “Really? Saved by the referee. Hope you win the WC now. But feel we got robbed today.”
During the match, Norwegian players believed that several refereeing calls favored England.
One notable instance was the disallowance of Torbjorn Heggem’s goal in the 53rd minute, which was ruled out due to a foul committed by Erling Haaland on Elliot Anderson during the buildup.
Norwegians also contended that Jude Bellingham’s equalizing goal in the first half should have been disallowed, since Orjan Nyland goal kick leading to the goal, made contact with the aerial camera.
They anticipated that VAR would identify this incident and implement the stop-and-restart procedure with a drop ball rule, as the ball had made contact with an object outside the field.
However, FIFA disclosed that the ball’s technology did not register any anomalies in the sequence leading to Bellingham’s equalizer, suggesting that the ball did not hit the aerial camera.
Andreas Schjelderup scored the opening goal in the 36th minute. Bellingham then netted twice (45+2′, 93′) to secure England’s comeback victory over Norway with a final score of 2-1.