The "Clearance Goal" was a controversial goal scored in an English Premier League match on 25 September 2010 played between Liverpool F.C. and Sunderland F.C. at Anfield. The referee for the match was controversial Premiere League Referee Stuart Attwell, the youngest referee in the Premiere League who has a history of controversial goal calls and non-calls in his short Premier League career.
The goal occurred at 5:02 of the match when Michael Turner of Sunderland weakly kicked a still ball from an awarded free kick, to goalkeeper Simon Mignolet in order that he should take the free kick. The weakly taken kick was intercepted by Fernando Torres of Liverpool, passed to Dirk Kuyt and kicked for goal. Referee Attwell deemed that the ball had been put back into play after being still for several seconds - hence Turner had, in the view of both Attwell and his assistant, taken the free kick which was then legitimately intercepted by Torres. Commentators almost immediately began to debate that while the Clearance Goal, as the BBC commentary at the time dubbed it, might have, and probably was, technically called correctly by the letter of The Laws Of The Game, the call flew in the face of both the spirit of The Laws Of The Game and also of common sense and common courtesy and practice. The correctness of the call is currently being hotly debated, and has added to Referee Attwell's controversial reputation.
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