Ahead of the World Cup in Russia, Goal looks at the most controversial dives, handballs, fouls and referee decisions in the tournament's history
Getty10Simunic's three yellow cards – 2006
English referee Graham Poll saw his international career end in shame at the 2006 World Cup when he gave three yellow cards to one player.
During the group stage match between Croatia and Australia, Poll had already sent two players off before showing Josip Simunic a second yellow card without sending him off. Simunic carried on and committed another foul later on and was booked again, this time getting his marching orders.
The game finished 2-2 and Australia carried on to the next round, while Poll was cut from the competition and subsequently retired from international level because of the decision.
"What I did was an error in law. There can be no dispute. It was not caused by a FIFA directive, it was not caused by me being asked to referee differently to the way I referee in the Premier League," he said. "The laws of the game are very specific.
"The referee takes responsibility for his actions on the field of play. I was the referee that evening. It was my error and the buck stops with me… Nobody got hurt and nobody died and it's a game even though it is very important."
AdvertisementGetty9Lucky La Roja – 1982
The 1982 World Cup was a disastrous one for host country Spain. They ended the tournament with just one win from five games and scored just four goals, but they still managed to make it a round further than they should have thanks to some dodgy refereeing.
After drawing with Honduras in their opening match thanks to a contentious penalty, La Roja took on one of the pre-tournament favourites in Yugoslavia and fell behind after 10 minutes. Just four minutes later, they were given a chance to level it with a penalty, even though the offence happened outside the box and just in front of the referee. When Lopez Ufarte sent the effort wide, the referee offered a retake, which Juanito buried.
Spain eventually went ahead and won the game to seal their spot in the second round despite losing the next group game to Northern Ireland while Yugoslavia went crashing out.
Getty8The Disgrace of Gijon – 1982
The group stage clash between West Germany and Austria in 1982 proved so controversial that FIFA had to bring in a new rule to prevent a repeat of the situation.
It is because of the 1-0 West German win that each team in the group plays their final match of the round at the same time.
Algeria had recorded a shock win over West Germany and lost to Austria before closing their group campaign with a win over Chile the night before, meaning it was still all to be decided when the contentious affair kicked off. A West German win of one or two goals would be enough to send both European teams through to the next round, and they were more than happy to do each other the favour.
The German side consisting of the likes of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Paul Breitner, Felix Magath and Uli Stielike attacked furiously from the beginning until Horst Hrubesch opened the scoring 10 minutes in. Once the deadlock was broken, both sides took the game down to a walking pace, merely passing between themselves and then back to the goalkeeper to run down the clock.
The crowd were understandably enraged. The watching Algerians jeered and burned money in protest while even the supporters of the qualifying teams were disgusted with what they saw to the extent that a German fan burned his country’s flag.
Getty7The Battle of Santiago – 1962
The clash between host nation Chile and Italy in their second game of the 1962 World Cup goes down as one of the most brutal in the history of the tournament, maybe the sport as a whole.
By the time English referee Ken Aston blew the whistle for the first foul 30 seconds in, he had already overlooked three obvious ones. The tone had been set for complete chaos and the first of two red cards was given after eight minutes when Giorgio Ferrini kicked out at Eladio Rojas. During the melee that followed, Italy’s Humberto Maschio walked up to Lionel Sanchez and punched him in the face even though he was standing right beside Aston, who did not see it.
The referee’s reputation in England was immaculate and his impeccable display in Chile’s opening game against Switzerland saw FIFA make a late change to put him in charge of the match. But Aston had no chance of keeping control of a game of monstrous challenges from all angles, heavy aerial battles and sheer barbarism. The nasty atmosphere started well before the game kicked off and persisted throughout it, needing police intervention several times.
This game was held before yellow cards were introduced, but a few years later, Aston proved instrumental in their introduction, taking inspiration from traffic lights: "Yellow, take it easy; red, stop, you're off," he recalled. They made their first appearance in the 1970 tournament.