Matra2, Porthos -
Thanks for posting all of those additional instances of biased refereeing at the World Cup. I have a habit of relating events in detail, so I tend to concentrate on one or two games at a time - even then, my posts blow out in length...
Truth be told, when I write about these things I become so angry that I often just have to stop and go off to do something else in order to calm mself down. When it comes to football, my unhealthily paradoxical mixture of chivalric idealism and a bleakly cynical view of humanity is a recipe for constant disillusionment and suspicion, which have cast a long shadow athwart my enjoyment of the game since childhood.
Of the 19 World Cups played so far, 14 have been won by the so-called "Big Four" of Brazil, Italy, Germany, and Argentina. Between them, the "Big Four" have also been losing finalists on 10 occassions.
Brazil - winners: 5; runners up: 2
Italy - winners: 4; runners up 2
Germany - winners: 3; runners up: 4
Argentina - winners: 2; runners up: 2
These statsitics would look far different if fair refereeing had been the norm. For example, if Italy's all-round cheating had been punished in 1934, Czechoslovakia would have won the title. If West Germany hadn't enjoyed those favours in the 1954 final, Hungary would have won, et cetera.
One decision in particular was pivotal both in terms of the destination of the World Cup trophy and in shaping the reputation of
arguably the world's greatest ever player. This, of course, was Diego Maradona's "Hand of God".
Can You imagine if the match officials (Tunisian referee, Costa Rican and Bulgarian linesmen) had disallowed the "Hand of God goal" - and red-carded Maradona for brazen deceit?
Firstly, Argentina would undoubtedly have lost the quarterfinal against England and would therefore only have "won" a single World Cup (their nefariously contrived home soil "triumph" of 1978).
Secondly, and even more significantly, Maradona's legendary reputation as a footballing genius would never have attained two of its key underpinning components, as he:
(a) would not have scored the "Goal of the Century" three minutes later, and
(b) would not have won a World Cup almost single-handedly
Without a World Cup trophy to his name and constantly-repeated footage of the second goal of the match, Maradona wouldn't be billed as the greatest footballer of all time, a title which would be exclusively reserved for that black fraud Pele. Instead, the Argentine would largely be remembered as a failure on the international stage and a player who was sent off in successive World Cups.
Maradona had been red-carded for putting his studs into Brazilian substitute Batista's bollocks in the 85th minute of a second round match in 1982. However, what everyone generally fails to mention is that Batista had raised a foot into the face of Argentina's Juan Barbas a couple of seconds earlier, so Maradona was actually getting in a bit of retaliation. But as Batista is Brazilian - and according to the media Brazilians are angelic players who can do no wrong - this little detail is conveniently omitted...
As we are posting all of these examples in the Euro 2012 thread, I'll raise a dodgy episode from the qualification tournament for the 1984 European Championship. As it occurred in the preliminaries, this match is not as well known as our aforementioned World Cup games but it's still remembered with distaste in the Netherlands, the nation whose team was deprived of a berth in the finals because of what transpired.
The Netherlands had finished all of their matches in Group 7 and sat on top of the table with 13 points, two clear of Spain. Back then, a win was worth two points and the Spaniards had one game remaining, which was at home against last-placed Malta. The Dutch position seemed secure enough as they had scored 22 goals and conceded 6, giving them a goal difference of 16. The Spaniards, on the other hand, had scored 12 goals and conceded 7, which equated to a goal difference of 5. In othet words, the only way Spain could surpass the Netehrlands was if they managed to beat Malta by a staggering 11 goals, which would tie up the goal differences but allow the Iberians to advance on the basis of goals scored.
The Maltese had been on the receiving end of a few hidings in the earlier rounds, having lost six of their seven matches, copping 25 goals in the process. Nonetheless, their heaviest losses had been 8-0 away to the Republic of Ireland, plus 5-0 and 6-0 at the hands of the Dutch. Interestingly enough, Malta had only narrowly lost 2-3 at home to Spain.
In the final match, having missed a second minute penalty Spain scored after fifteen minutes but the Maltese equalised before falling behind 3-1. There was no further scoring in the first half, so in order to qualify Spain now had to get
an additional nine goals without reply in the next 45 minutes.
Sounds improbable? Well, not only did Spain score exactly nine more goals, they did so in 39 minutes, the final goal falling in the 84th minute! The 12-1 scoreline levelled the Spanish and Dutch goal differences at 16, with the Spaniards progressing by virtue of having scored 24 goals to the Netherlands' 22.
Despite the "questionable" nature of Spain's qualification, the kid who would grow up to become Rebajlo was still glad that the Netherlands would not appear in the finals as they were already using non-Whites Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Sonny Silooy.
Matra2 -
On the subject of the Euro 1984 qualifiers, I'm sure that You remember Northern Ireland's campaign, which saw the Ulstermen miss out on goal difference after finishing level on points with West Germany. Despite beating the Germans both home and away, Northern Ireland were undone by their away games against the two worst teams in the group: a draw with Albania (who lost six of their eight matches) and a bloody well 1-0 loss to Turkey.
What made things worse were the circumstances under which the West Germans "won" 2-1 against Albania in Tirana. Have a look at this clip of the goals from that match:
ALBANIA 1 WEST GERMANY 2 - 1983, European Championship qualifier:
[video=youtube;n0qcc9IYUI0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0qcc9IYUI0[/video]
If You want a prime example of German "pragmatism", look no further than their second goal. This was a penalty scored by that stuck-up prick Karl-Heinz Rummenigge following a "foul" on Stephan Engels, who deliberately barged into the defender then promptly went down in the area himself. The Albanians' goal also came from a penalty, but this one was legitimate, as - in a typically "clean" piece of play - Gerd Strack clearly used his arm to control the ball...
Porthos said:
The "Eastern block" teams were regularly cheated by referees, probably because of economic/TV viewership reasons, posibly because of ideology as you say. In the same 1982 World Cup group stage Yugoslavia was cheated by a penalty kick awarded to Spain for a foul that was good 2-3 meters outside of the penalty area, and when the Spanish player missed the first kick, the PK was repeated! Spain won 2:1.
Another blatant cheating was in the Belgium-USSR game during the 1986 WC, where Belgium was given not one but 2 goals scored from players in deep offside positions.
Porthos -
Until the end of the 1980s, any bias against eastern European teams was almost purely "political". From the final decade of the last century - the dawn of the age of soccer pay TV - it was replaced by the viewer / consumer based "financial" angle, particularly in club football. The "big clubs" were aggressively marketed as global brands, so the chinks, Japs, curries, and camel ball munchers naturally became accustomed to watching (and therefore funding) the "most successful" English, Spanish, Italian and German clubs. These non-European masses (in addition to the "trendy" European football-as-pop-entertainment fans) have no interest in what are termed "small" and "obscure" clubs. Imagine if the Champions League final was contested between, let's say, Hajduk Split and Lech Poznan. What would the worldwide viewing numbers be compared to a Barcelona - Manchester United decider?