Dubious Goals Panel (Committee)

The Dubious Goals Panel is a body within the English Premier League responsible for correcting any injustices brought to its attention when it comes to awarding goals to players who scored them.

The Premier League Committee meets on an ad hoc basis, whenever a disputed goal is brought to its attention. This is generally around three or four times each season.

The EFL Dubious Goals Committee exists for the English Football League.

The EPL 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.

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

• Whether a goal has been scored. This is a matter for the officials attending the match in question.
• If such statistics are collected, these are attributed to players by their clubs.

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”.

Most frequently the situation is as follows. During a football match, a player shoots the ball towards the opposing goal and the ball takes a deflection off a defender and goes in the back of the net. The goal is recorded as an auto-goal. The Dubious Goals Panel is called into action and if the consensus is that the original shot was on target and powerful enough, the decision is overturned and goal awarded to the player who shot the ball.