A chalk mark has been spotted on the 1966 World Cup Final ball proving the ball never crossed the line, the National Football Museum is to hand to ball over to the Germans.

THE WORLD CUP final ball from England’s 1966 victory has been given to the German National Football Museum after proof emerged that it DIDN’T cross the line.

The famous ball, the subject of endless debate after Geoff Hurst’s controversial World Cup Final goal, has been part of the National Football Museum’s collection since 2001. 

But today it was dispatched to the German National Football Museum after staff at the NFM in Manchester discovered a previously un-noticed chalk mark on the ball, proving conclusively it didn’t cross the line.

During regular conservation work recently, a member of the museum collections team spotted a previously unrecorded tiny white mark on the ball and decided they needed to send it off for scientific testing to see what, exactly, it was.

After weeks of analysis, scientists proved beyond doubt that the small mark was undisputedly chalk from the Wembley goal line. 

Experts have said it proves that the ball bounced on rather than over the line, when Geoff Hurst’s famous shot bounced off the crossbar and hit the floor in the 1966 final.

The famous game was precariously balanced at 2-2 at the time and Hurst’s ‘goal’ completely changed the outcome of the game, instantly deflating the German team and giving the English players the impetus to go forwards and eventually win the game 4-2.

But, as a result of the discovery that Hurst’s shot hit the line and didn’t cross it, the Manchester-based museum has sent the ball to the new National Football Museum in Germany to display.


Herr Wolfgang Aprilscherz, spokesman for the German DFB Museum in Dortmand, which is due to open in summer 2015, said: “We are very happy to have such an important exhibit and delighted that the argument about Geoff Hurst’s goal has finally been settled.

“The ball didn’t cross the line – we have the proof in this chalk mark. And now the ball is in its rightful place on display in Germany.”

Kevin Haygarth, head of sales and marketing at the National Football Museum in Manchester, said: “We are glad that we’ve been able to finally settle this almost 50-year-old debate – possibly the biggest and most contentious goal ever scored in professional football.

“We are sad to see the ball go but we feel that it has been residing in England for almost half a century and, in light of the new evidence, it is time that Germany got to display it now.”

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