Darren Bent's bizarre 'beach-ball' goal for Sunderland against Liverpool - scored a decade ago today - should never have stood.
But now, with the introduction of VAR, a similar incident would be impossible to repeat.
The Reds lost out to the Black Cats in October 2009 after Bent, from just inside the penalty area, shot towards Pepe Reina's goal.
Initially looking to be heading into the Spaniard's arms, the ball careered against a beach-ball that had been thrown onto the playing field by a Liverpool supporter and into the back of the net.
Despite protestation, the goal was allowed and Sunderland secured a narrow 1-0 victory.
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"If that happened again now and the referee didn’t see it, then it would be classed as ‘outside interference’," an FA-qualified referee told the ECHO.
"You’d disallow the goal and restart with a drop-ball inside the penalty area to the goalkeeper.
"VAR would prevent that from happening now, but on the day it was missed by the referee.
"There has always been legislation around things that count as ‘outside interference’ though, usually applying to things like dogs running on, the ball hitting other objects on the pitch, etc., that aren’t the fault of either team."
Mike Jones, the referee who incorrectly awarded Bent's goal for Sunderland, was demoted to the Championship after the error but even to this day the outside interference rule still poses questions for officials.
"The Sunderland goal was a definite mistake from the referee and had they have seen it at the time, the law said that a drop-ball could be contested between the two teams so you could have ended up with a messy situation in the penalty area," the FA official added.
"For this season, they've changed it so that any drop-ball is uncontested and also any incident which you’d restart with a drop-ball that occurs inside the area is just dropped to the goalkeeper.
"This law is controversial as theoretically a dog could run on, clear the ball off the line that was definitely going in, and the goalie would get the ball dropped to him instead!"
