Football is one of the world’s most followed and widely played sports. With a significant following for the sport, the professional matches are bliss to the eyes of someone who loves the game. The huge amount of audience and high stakes fuel the passion of the players on the field.
But sometimes this developed competitiveness carries its momentum in the wrong direction and players do foul plays. Not to forget the rage when a referee fails to punish the wrong or makes a wrong decision resulting in an unfavored outcome.
There have been numerous accounts of such matches in the history of football. Here are the top 10 most controversial football matches of all time.
10. Arsenal vs Manchester United
Arsenal was on a crazy 49-game win streak and hadn’t suffered a single loss since then. However, their hard momentum was broken when the Gunners decided to invade Old Trafford. The home team Manchester United beat Arsenal with a 2-0 scoreline.
The matchup was one of the most heated battles and was a sequel to their previous encounter which was nicknamed the ‘Battle of Old Trafford’. Arsenal had a promising start in the game and had possession of the ball majority of the time.
However, this all came to an end when the referee declared a penalty when Rooney was tackled by Sol Campbell in their penalty area. However, the video footage later showed that the Man U player had dived and there was no contact with the gunner. The Red Devils converted the penalty and Rooney scored the finishing goal to secure the win.
The frustrated Arsenal players were seen targeting their star player Ronaldo throughout the match. Having been disappointed with the team’s performance, one of the audience members threw a pizza at the Arsenal coach Wenger. Henceforth the matchup was entitled the ‘Battle of Buffet’ and also ‘Pizzagate’.
9. Republic of Ireland vs France
After overcoming various hardships and giving it their all, The Republic of Ireland national football team made it to the esteemed 2010 FIFA World Cup playoffs. It was a great run for the team in the qualifications prior to the playoffs.
However, the team had to face one of the most successful nations in the world, France. Given their current form, the Ireland team would have clutched this playoff. But the team had to face disappointment as they lost their first leg on their own home ground.
On the contrary, the team performed exceptionally and scored the away goal when they invaded France. France couldn’t score their home goal to break the equalizer. However, in the overtime of the match referee ignored two instances of handball by Thierry Henry which led to the tie-breaker goal by William Gallas.
This became one of the greatest controversial decisions in the history of football and the referee’s actions were frowned upon. Not to mention the usher disappointment of the Irish people and all their hopes being crashed.
8. Portugal vs Netherlands
In the round of 16 for FIFA World Cup 2006, Netherlands and Portugal battled it out to secure their spot in the Quarter Finals. However the matchup turned out to be one of the fiercest battles in the history of football.
The referee had to raise his hand a total of 20 times in between the game to give out cards to players to punish them. The match holds the record number of cards given out in a single FIFA matchup. Referee handed out 4 red cards and 16 yellow cards to the players on the field that day.
This Battle at the Frankenstadion turned out to be a bitter one . However Portugal managed to score a goal and advanced to the quarter finals. However, starting with the foul to injure the superstar Ronaldo, the matchup was a brutal physical exchange between the two and later was nicknamed Massacre of Nuremberg.
7. France vs Italy
In the finals of 2006 FIFA World Cup it was Zidane all over the place along with the opposition star Materazzi. It was the last match for the France’s superstar Zidane. However, it didn’t go his way as he was forced to leave the field followed by a foul behaviour.
The full time saw a scoreline of 1-1 draw. However, Italy went on to win the match in penalties with a scoreline of 5-3. It was all because France had lost their key player Zidane who gave in to his anger and got in an argument with the Italy’s superstar.
Zidane and Materazzi were the only two goal scorers for their teams and due to some reasons got in a verbal argument. Zidane’s anger took control of him and headbutted Materazzi which resulted in Zidane’s sad send off in his final match.
6. Mexico vs Panama
It was a semifinal matchup for the 2015 Gold Cup, where we witness some of the most controversial decisions by a referee. These weird decisions were unjust and the Panama national team fell victim to those and had to lose a winning match against Mexico.
The referee of the matchup between Mexico and Panama was Mark Geiger. In the first few minutes after the play started, he showed a Panama player way to the dressing field after what he thought was a elbow strike to one of the Mexican players.
He continued this unjust behavior and awarded a penalty to the Mexican team in the last minute out of nowhere. Mexico converted the penalty and scored the equalizer as the victim team was already a goal up. He crossed all limits by awarding another penalty to Mexico in the overtime which Mexico didn’t let go of and scored the winning goal.
5. Sweden vs Denmark
In the group stage matchup between Denmark and Sweden for the 2004 EUFA European Championship, the outcome of the match was going to decide the position for Italy.
Any score other than a 2-2 draw could’ve let Italy take a relief. However, the outcome of the result was a shocking draw of 2-2, resulting in Italy going back to their home. Raged by the elimination of their nation from the Championship, audience started calling the match a possible case of fixing.
There were lot of articles and piece of media published to support the theory which felt very right considering the unfavorable outcome of the match.
4. Serbia vs Albania
The partizan stadium of Belgrade has seen many football fights turning violent and fierce in it’s history. One of these could be seen in a qualifying matchup between Serbia and Albania in the EUFA Euro 2016.
On 14th October 2014, 25,200 people came to witness this match with their own eyes. However, there was nothing left to see as even before the half time whistle the game was abandoned following a flare thrown towards a player on field by someone in the audience.
And instantly after it was a swarm of flares flying aroumd. This was followed by a drone hovering around the field carrying a Albanian nationalist flag.
Since there was no goal scored before the game was abandoned, the actual scoreline would have been 0-0. However , the FA decoded that Serbia had forfeited the game and awarded the Albanian team a 3 goal win. This gave the team 3 points which led them to them qualifying for the playoffs.
3. USA vs Slovenia
In a decider matchup between USA and Slovenia for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the outcome was going to decide whether the former team was going to qualify for the upcoming World Cup. USA’s loss would have meant their return to their home and elimination from the Cup.
The match started in the favour of the small country of Slovenia as the team had scored two goals two lead the game 2-0. However USA was fast on recovery and Landon Donovan scored the first goal for USA. Followed by another amazing goal by Michael Bradley.
The team had made an amazing comeback and was going to win as Maurice Edu converted a beautiful pass into the penalty area into a wonderful goal. However the referee blowed his whistle and discarded the goal saying it was a foul. However, the video footage showed no discrepancy and it was a complete fault at referee’s end.
The disallowed goal crushed the hopes of millions of fans rooting for their nation. USA ended up losing the match and were eliminated from the World Cup. This went down as the Phantom Foul and the referee Koman Coulibaly was entitled ‘Sleepy eyes’.
2. Chelsea vs Barcelona
On 6th May 2009, it was time for the second leg match of the semi final battle between Barcelona and Chelsea. Having tied the away leg with a null scoreline, Chelsea just had to win the match to make it to the Finals of the EUFA Champions League.
The matchup at Stanford Bridge started in the Blues favor when Michael Essien scored and incredible vollwy to give his team a lead of 1-0. However it was all downhill from there for the team.
The official referee of the match Tom Overbo had different plans as he made a number of unjust decisions that night to which Chelsea fell victim. Ovrebo declined 4 instances of penalties to the Blues. He let go of two handballs by Barca players and even an unorthodox tackle on Drogba.
To top it off, Iniesta scored an equalizer in overtime and Barcelona won the semi final on the basis of away goals. Unhappy with the injustice, Drogba commented after the match: “Are you watching this? It’s a disgrace. It’s a f*cking disgrace.”
1. South Korea vs Italy
Hands down, one of the most controversial matches of all time, Soth Korea vs Italy was a complete disaster. The Italians had to fall victim to injustice by the official referee of the night, Byron Moreno.
The match itself started with a intriguingly unjust decision by the official. Moreno awarded a penalty to the South Korean team when Seol Ki-Hyeon threw himself in the oppositions penalty area. However, the team couldn’t take advantage and the scoreline still remain void.
He didn’t stop here as it was mere a start to his train of unjust decisions throughout the match. He turned his eyes away on all the elbow hits on the Italian players by the Korean team. Whereas lifted his hands up to give Totti a yellow card for an unintentional elbow hit on one of the South Korean players.
The cherry on top of the cake came in the form of Totti being sent off the field for what our referee thought of as a dive by the player. However, the video footage clearly showed that the Korean player had crossed his leg in between to make this fall a possibility.
This was followed by Moreno disallowing a goal for Italy in the overtime stating it as an offside. Tomassi had put up a great show and had scored an incredible goal. However, our dear official had something else in mind. Moreno was engraved in the history books as one of the most unjust officials and was suspended later as he was caught for a match fixing scandal. Not to forget that the player was also caught smuggling heroin years later.
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