The controversial play in the Montreal Alouettes' game against the B.C. Lions on Friday night occurred in part because of excessive crowd noise that made it impossible to hear the play had been stopped, according to the Canadian Football League’s director of officiating.

Tom Higgins told sportsnet.ca on Sunday that the play that wiped out an Als’ touchdown late in B.C. 19-12 win had actually been blown dead prior to or just after the snap of the ball but could not be heard above the din of the crowd noise inside B.C. Place.

The play was blown dead because the CFL command centre and the supervisor, who runs the game for the CFL and is present at the game, had concerns about the actual time remaining in the game and wanted to reset the clock. Higgins said before the start of the contentious play, the supervisor and command centre felt the clock should have indicated 1:05, not one minute, so collectively they buzzed the on-field officials to stop the play and get the referee to reset the clock.

"There is a (second or so) of a delay in the buzzer itself -- that’s just the radio signal -- so when it went and from the time they blew the whistle the play had started and now they go in to score," Higgins said. "Had (the play been stopped), no matter what happened, that play ended up getting terminated. It didn’t exist.

"Some (officials’) whistles went at some point. We can’t piece together -- and I don’t know if we’ll get into any more detail -- when the whistles went, but they went either before the play, in the middle of the play, definitely before it concluded. But with the amount of noise that was there, I’m not sure anybody was possibly going to hear anything."

B.C. head coach Wally Buono called a timeout just before the first snap of what became the first of three separate tries on a third-and-one play. Game tape clearly showed Buono making the call before the play, during which Montreal made the yardage needed to extend the series.

An official’s flag was thrown on the second play, during which Montreal scored. Higgins said the flag would have penalized B.C. for lining up offside, but it became a moot point because the play technically never existed because it had been blown dead. The flag only added to the confusion on the play, particularly after referee Murray Clarke announced there had been no flag on the play, but that the play was being reviewed by the replay official, Jake Ireland. He is based at the command centre, which the CFL instituted this year to speed up the video review process and with the advent of high-tech equipment. No longer is the referee determining whether to uphold or overturn calls in the final three minutes of the game or overtime. It is up to the replay official to determine that.

In this case, the clock was right all along -- one minute was the correct time -- meaning the play should not have been whistled dead.

"There was a mistake made by the supervisor and command centre in stopping the play," Higgins said. "But had we stopped it without the ball being snapped, we don’t have any controversy, so that’s where it all comes in. "We still take responsibility that we’re in control and there was lots of miscommunication on that play and we’d hope we learned some lessons in the process here."

Higgins said Montreal team officials wanted to know what role the command centre has with the timing of the game.

"The answer is nothing," Higgins said. "We are getting a television feed. We are not there. Our supervisor is there, so that’s why there is a little bit of an explanation that goes with this -- not justifying, just explaining.

"We pressed the button well in advance before that ball was snapped and wanted to make sure we got something that we thought was wrong right and should put five seconds back on the clock.

"The command centre has probably exceeded our expectations of how it’s operating," Higgins added. "The pager has been in place and we haven’t touched it, although with what’s happened there’s a good possibility that we might then determine that maybe there should be an investment in updating or upgrading the paging system we have. There’s been nothing wrong with it. It runs, it operates, it works."

Higgins said going forward if there is a concern too close to the snap of the ball, the play should stand and they live with what happens.

Higgins said the CFL spent considerable time on Saturday talking to Clarke and went through the mechanics of everything that happened and also talked to the game supervisor and Ireland to piece it all together. He said he is hoping that in reviewing the copy of the game film it will verify that one of the seven officials tried to stop the play before it started or before it concluded by blowing a whistle.

"We take responsibility, we’ve got to move on," he said. "It’s a shame that a critical play occurred, but as far as the play-by-plays that need be looked at, that play never existed."