A £100m glitch: Inside the most controversial 0-0 in Premier League history

When the Premier League returned in June 2020 after its pandemic shutdown, football felt surreal. Empty stadiums, artificial crowd noise and a league racing to complete its season created a strange new reality.

But one moment from that restart would become infamous, not for a goal scored, but for one that somehow never existed.

In a match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United, technology designed to remove controversy failed at the worst possible time, creating one of the strangest refereeing moments in Premier League history.

The hawkeye error seven cameras could not spot

The incident occurred on June 17, 2020, during the league’s first round of matches after a 100-day COVID-19 hiatus. Sheffield United were pushing for a European place, while Aston Villa were fighting for survival.

Late in the first half, Oliver Norwood delivered a dangerous free kick into the Villa penalty area. Goalkeeper Orjan Nyland gathered the ball, but a collision with teammate Keinan Davis forced him backward.

Replays showed Nyland carrying the ball clearly over the goal line while stumbling into the net. Under normal circumstances, goal-line technology would instantly alert the referee. But nothing happened.

The hawkeye system, which had worked flawlessly in more than 9,000 previous matches, failed to send the signal to referee Michael Oliver’s watch.

After the match, hawkeye explained that all seven cameras tracking the goal were “occluded”, blocked simultaneously by players, the goalkeeper and the goalpost. It was described as an unprecedented technical failure.

Even more remarkably, VAR did not intervene despite broadcast replays showing the ball well over the line. The match continued as if the moment had never occurred.

How the ‘ghost goal’ changed the relegation battle in 2020

Now, you might wonder why this particular error has been labelled the most controversial decision by VAR in Premier League history. Here’s why.

At the time, the match finished as a frustrating 0-0 draw. For Aston Villa, it was simply another point in a tight relegation fight. By the end of the season, however, that point looked very different.

Villa finished 17th with 35 points, narrowly avoiding relegation. Bournemouth and Watford both ended the campaign on 34 points. Had Sheffield United’s goal been awarded and Villa lost the game, Dean Smith’s side would have finished on 34 points themselves.

With a worse goal difference than Bournemouth in that scenario, Villa would have dropped into the relegation zone. The financial implications were enormous. Staying in the Premier League is estimated to be worth £100 million in broadcasting revenue and prize money.

For Sheffield United, the missed goal also carried consequences. Manager Chris Wilder famously said via News24, afterward he “didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” as his side’s push for European qualification lost momentum.