Dubious Goals Committee

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The Dubious Goals Committee is a Football committee in the United Kingdom. Specifically it is a body of the English FA Premier League and it adjudicates in any instance where the identity of the scorer of a goal is disputed.

The committee meets on an ad hoc basis, whenever a disputed goal is brought to its attention. This is, on average, three or four times each season. ^[1]

1 Committee
2 Role of the Committee
3 The Adjudication Process
4 Controversy
5 Selected decisions
- 5.1 2005/2006
6 Notes

[edit] Committee

The committee is made up of three former football players or football officials. The identity of the committee members at any given time is kept secret in order to protect committee members from undue influence to make any particular decision. ^[1]

[edit] Role of the Committee

The role of the committee is solely to determine the identity of the goal scorer to be entered into the separate official records of that player, his club, and the league. It will therefore be noted that the committee does not enquire into:

whether a goal has been scored. This is a matter for the officials attending the match in question.
assists. These are attributed to players by their clubs.

There is no comparable body for other football leagues in the United Kingdom. In all other football matches in the United Kingdom the identity of the goalscorer is determined by the club which has scored the goal.

[edit] The Adjudication Process

The adjudication process comprises the viewing of video evidence followed by discussion by the committee members. The guiding principle when adjudicating is as follows:

"As a rule, if the initial attempt is goalbound it is credited to the player making the goal attempt. However if the deflection means that a wayward effort results in a goal then it is attributed to the player who had the last definitive touch of the ball." ^[1]

[edit] Controversy

Apart from the general principle outlined above there are no clear-cut rules to guide adjudications and some decisions have been controversial. One of the panel's stranger decisions marked an own goal against Stephen Clemence in Birmingham City's visit to Highbury on 2nd October 2005 — even though it resulted from a minor deflection to a shot, from Arsenal's Robin van Persie, which was already goalbound. (A decision which became all the more curious in light of the Crouch judgement described below.) They also opted to take two goals away from Leon Osman of Everton, which were scored in January 2006 — though David Moyes, the Everton manager, has stated that in the club's records Osman will be credited with the goals (despite the obvious discrepancy that will leave between club and official records.)

Such inconsistencies have encouraged suggestions that the panel is heavily influenced by not-altogether-impartial tabloid journalists and other media pundits.

[edit] Selected decisions

[edit] 2005/2006

Their most high-profile ruling of the 2005-06 season was the first goal of Liverpool's 3-0 win over Wigan Athletic on 3rd December 2005. There was popular demand to credit much-maligned Liverpool striker Peter Crouch with the goal (making it his first for the club since his summer transfer from Southampton), although the shot took a heavy deflection, looped in the air and was then dropped over the line by Wigan goalkeeper Michael Pollitt.

Stephen Clemence (o.g.) rather than Robin van Persie in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Birmingham City on 2nd October 2005.
Zurab Khizanishvili (o.g) replaces Joe Cole in Chelsea's 4-2 win over Blackburn Rovers on 29th October 2005.
Peter Crouch scored first goal for Liverpool against Wigan Athletic on 3rd December 2005, as opposed to Michael Pollitt (o.g).
Carlos Bocanegra (o.g) replaces Park Ji-sung in Manchester United's 4 - 2 win over Fulham on 4th February 2006.