‘Called incorrectly’: London Beefeaters season ends on blown call by officials

London Beefeaters players walk off the field on Oct. 11, 2025. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

The London Beefeaters were celebrating their game-ending blocked field goal, when they saw flags on the field.

Officials ruled London had 13 players on the field and called a “too many players” on the field penalty and awarded Hamilton another shot to tie the game with no time left on the clock.

The Hurricanes made the field goal sending them to overtime tied at 23 points, before the Hurricanes won the game on a rouge in extra time.

The problem was however London only had 12 players out there, and the referees miscounting cost the Beefeaters a shot at the Ontario Football Conference (OFC) title next week.

“Any time your season ends so abruptly, I think it’s obviously disappointing,” said Matt Snyder, head coach of the London Beefeaters Football Club (LBFC). “We thought we had a chance to win the game and some of the circumstances surrounding the end of the game definitely add to the disappointment.”

The LBFC immediately sent multiple angles of the play to the OFC head of officials and the league. The league conducted a review of the play.

“Having completed its investigation and having spoken with the officiating crew and the president of the London Football Officials Association (LFOA) it has been determined that the penalty assessed against London for “too many players” on the last play of regulation, was called incorrectly resulting in an untimed play and the continuation of the game,” OFC President Darren M. Cocchetto wrote in a statement which was released Wednesday.

Cocchetto added that while “regrettable and unfortunate” the 24-23 final score will stand, Hamilton will advance to the OFC Final against St. Clair this week.

“The LFOA has acknowledged the error and has taken accountability for the incorrect penalty call,” added Cocchetto. “As has already been communicated by the LFOA to the Beefeater organization, the play in question will be used by the LFOA in its training to help ensure accuracy in its officiating going forward in its pursuit to provide the highest quality football officiating in and around the City of London.”

There are still many questions surrounding why multiple officials in the endzone threw flags at the same time. One theory is they counted the umpire as one of the players. Another is the officials assumed there were two returners in the endzone behind them, when there was only one.

“I don’t really have a lot of information on what happened in the back end,” explained Snyder.

He added, “We just know that the game continued after that, and we didn’t take advantage of some opportunities we had. At the end of the day, everybody is out there, and nobody is making a career of it. So, we’re all just out there for the love of the game, trying to do our best. Everybody makes mistakes and we made a bunch of mistakes in the game as well that we wish we could have back.”

After learning of the referees taking accountability for the error, the LBFC posted a statement on Facebook.

“We appreciate the league’s transparency through the review process,” wrote the LBFC. “The Beefeaters are proud of our players and coaches for the way they represented the organization thru the 2025 season. We now turn our attention towards preparing for the 2026 season.”