It is true that the history of the World Cup is full of goals, great players and legendary matches, but it has also been marked by many referee mistakes that remain in the mind.
From the goal of the French Patrick Battiston of the German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher to the uncalculated goal of the English Frank Lampard, passing through the “Hand of God” goal of the Argentine Diego Maradona, AFP goes back in time to shed some light on some ” unfortunate decisions “that could have been avoided Probably thanks to the progress the game has achieved today thanks to the technology of the goal line and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
more controversial
Despite the passing of the decades, the controversy still exists over the goal scored by Englishman Geoff Hurst against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final. Was the goal right or not? Nobody knows, but Soviet (Azerbaijani) referee assistant Tawfiq Bakhramov said yes at the time and England have won their first and only title so far.
The final took place at Wembley Stadium in London in front of 95,000 spectators.
And in the 100th minute of extra time, when the score was 2-2, Hurst scored a goal that was still controversial until now; As his shot hit the crossbar and bounced off the ground, and after consultations between Swiss referee Gottfried Denst and flag bearer Bakhramov, the former scored a goal for England in the midst of a German protest.
Shortly before the end, Hurst added his third goal, making him the first player to score a hat-trick in a final.
Fahad Al-Ahmad goes to the stadium
France were comfortably ahead of Kuwait 3-1 during the 1982 World Cup when the crash occurred. After a ball exchange between Michel Platini and Alain Giresse, the latter managed to score the fourth goal for the “Gallo” team.
However, this goal came after some Kuwaiti players stopped playing due to the whistle from the stands. The referee awarded the goal, but the Kuwaiti players refused to continue the game on the recommendation of the head of the Kuwaiti Football Association at the time, Sheikh Fahd Al-Ahmad, brother of the country’s Emir, who took the field.
After a break of about 10 minutes, the Soviet referee, Miroslav Staubar, decided to cancel the goal, so much so that Maxim Bossis returned and gave France a fourth goal at the end of the match, which the “roosters” won 4-1.
brutality
It’s a Seville nightmare. In the same 1982 edition in Spain, France faced Germany in the semifinals, and while the 1-1 draw was the master, Platini passes a ball in depth to Battiston, who entered the bench a few minutes before her.
Battiston’s field adventure lasted no more than 8 minutes; Because after Platini’s pass, Harald Schumacher was left alone and shot on goal, but the latter deliberately hit him hard, and he fell to the ground without lifting a finger.
Battiston passed out and his colleagues thought he was dead and Platini yelled for help, while Schumacher stood up and didn’t care what he did and played the ball without receiving any punishment from the referee, not even giving a free kick to the France.
Battiston, who lost two teeth due to this interference, which took place on the periphery of the penalty area, said: “I was towards the goal, Stelecke was behind me and Schumacher in front of me, and I said to myself, if I hit the ball, I’ll score. that. “
“Hand of God”
After a negative first half in the 1986 quarter-finals, in the second half came the review of Maradona, who will remain immortal in our minds, both for the level in which Argentina appeared and for the two goals scored by the disappeared legend.
Argentina did not take long to open the scoring in the interval, as after a joint match between Maradona and Jorge Valdano, the latter lifted the ball into the area to the first who broke the offside trap. Maradona noticed that Peter Shelton came out to catch him, then reached out to the ball and put it into the goal, announcing the first goal, which was “with something from the head and something from the hand of God”, according to what he said. the legend.
The English protested strongly against the goal, but the Tunisian referee, Ali Bennacer, did not reverse his decision and confirmed the legitimacy of the goal.
England manager Bobby Robson said: “The referee did not see what the whole world saw. Maradona scored not with his head, but with his hand, as Shelton preceded the ball after realizing that was within the reach of the latter. “
«It is the hand of God», the Argentine newspapers wrote the next day, also the hand of the «devil», the devil who knows how to forgive himself for his successes and good performances.
England were hardly digesting the first goal until they received a second shock this time due to what was billed as the best goal in World Cup history, after Maradona penetrated from 65 meters and got rid of one defender after another before throwing the ball into Shelton’s net.
3 yellow leaves
Three warnings for a player! During the 2006 Croatia-Australia match, the first defender, Josip Šimunić, ended up being sent off but … a third yellow card.
In the 62nd minute the Croatian received his first yellow card for a mistake in front of his team’s penalty area, then English referee Graham Paul raised his second yellow card in the 90th minute without sending him off for not paying attention to the first yellow card.
But justice was achieved in extra time when the Croatian received a third yellow card for a foul, and this time Paul alerted and threw the red card in his face.
the most influential
As happened in the 1966 final, but with different roles, England tasted the bitterness of what the Germans experienced when Frank Lampard scored a fair goal against “De Manchaft” in the 2010 final, after his shot bounced off the crossbar. behind the goal line and the result was 2-1 for the Germans. .
But the Uruguayan referee, Jorge Larionda, did not see the ball cross the line, as did the referee, and Germany avoided the draw by closing the game 4-1.
This incident accelerated the use of goal line technology, which later paved the way for the adoption of the video assistant referee (VAR).
