Pulled up an YouTube post of an iTV special on the five (worst) refereeing calls which shook the world, and I want you to see just how bad Sepp Blatter and the like want the officials to determine the games a certain way.
Number 5: Germany-England, World Cup 2010, South Africa, Round of 16.
England were 2-0 down to Germany fairly quickly, but got one goal back before something utterly shocking happened.
At about :45 of the clip, DeFoe goes to Lampard, who is able to chip over the goaltender and off the crossbar and basically down.
Shortly thereafter (1:03), you see a replay which openly shows that the goal was, in fact, scored. The whole of the ball needs to go over the whole of the line, and it does so. Clearly.
No goal, England loses 4-1.
Sepp Blatter has been so damnated against replay in soccer that he clearly needs the officials to have every mechanism at their disposal to fix the matches. But when a goal can be clearly shown to be at least by one entire width of the soccer ball -- perhaps more! -- it is clear that the match is fixed.
For the referee to miss the call, as well as his linesman, when the ball is that far over the line, it is a deliberate act of malfeasance which indicates that England, under NO circumstances, was going to win on that day.
And he was removed, and he should've been removed. You HAVE TO make that call. That ball was, by the announcers' estimation, a yard over the line. Tell Sepp Blatter to go to Hell if you have to, but a goal is a goal.
Number 4: West Germany-France, World Cup 1982, Spain, Semifinals
When a respected official, on camera, tells the world that this is the worst refereeing mistake ever made in the history of soccer, that should get a red flag up immediately.
The score is 1-1, and France's Patrick Battiston appears to go through cleanly for a 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper for Germany, Harold Schumacher.
What happened next, Battiston was asked on the clip...
"I don't know. I was unconscious."
Battiston takes his shot and misses it -- probably because Schumacher comes flying at him and basically takes Battiston's freaking head off! (3:26 starts the clip, contact at the left side of the screen at 3:31.)
Now, it's not a red for Denial of a Goal-Scoring Opportunity, as Battiston's panic probably ends the GSO, but that's red for a violent tackle of the first order. Battiston lost three teeth and broke a vertebrae, according to the clip, but the referee not only does not send Schumacher off, he doesn't even render the contact to be a foul whatsoever -- goal kick to West Germany!!
If you watch the clip at about 4:03, you find out that the guy basically elbows Battiston in the head, his feet at least a foot off the ground!! To no-call that on not only a red card, but a penalty to France is abjectly criminal!
At least some levity is done with a funny little joke at the end of that series, so have a laugh at that before we go to Number 3...
West Germany win the game in penalties after a 3-3 draw, but lose the final to Italy.
Number 3: Croatia-Australia, 2006 World Cup, Germany, Group H, Third Match
You know you're in trouble when a referee cannot count to two.
You know you're in more trouble when FOUR officials can't count to two.
Graham Poll is one of the most respected referees in the entire world, one of England's best -- or at least he was before this match.
This was a tournament marred by a massive amount of foul play (one of the most-carded tournaments in the history of soccer).
It still doesn't excuse, however, how Croatia's Josep Simunic could, in the course of the second half, get THREE yellow cards.
After a 61st-minute card for dissent, the second card by Simunic should've been straight-red to begin with -- not only is it a cynical tackle (two, in fact, in the center circle -- about 5:35 or so in the clip), but Simunic bumps Poll as he receives what was his second yellow card in the 90th minute, which would've sent the Croatians to nine men versus Australia's ten. (In fact, all three men were sent off (including Simunic three minutes later on his third yellow) after the 85th minute of the match!)
So, short of a fix or something, why does Poll not send him off, and why do the other three officials not communicate with Poll as to the fact that Simunic had already been cautioned about a half-hour before?
The tackles merited straight-red to begin with. But to miss a fundamental count of two?
There's "everybody makes mistakes", but for the mistake to be that obvious (a literal "everybody in the stadium can see it" situation -- and that's if you don't send Simunic off directly for the tackles in the 90th!), something has to be up. FIFA is effectively forced, according to the match report through Wikipedia, to disown the yellow card in the 90th, even though the whole situation could've merited two red-card offenses (one for the tackles, one for bumping the official).
In fact, the clip notes that it was some time, and a DVD, later that Poll found out that he had given Simunic three cards. HOW IS THAT FUCKING POSSIBLE?
Graham Poll, and rightly, removed himself from any further tournament final matches permanently after that Cup, and retired from domestic officiating within a year. That level of malfeasance, even under the color of "mistake" (and, given the culture of world soccer, I don't believe that for a second -- the match is 2-2, and Croatia needs a win to advance, the draw advancing Australia -- and Simunic has committed two cynical tackles and bumped you), cannot occur. It -- simply -- cannot.
Number 2: Argentina-England, 1986 World Cup, Mexico, Quarter-Final
The Hand of God. Nothing more really need be said.
Maradona, in a scoreless match in the 51st minute, deliberately punches the ball after slicing through three defenders before passing the ball and getting the ball back through three more.
(Clip starts about 8:18)
In fact, he's borderline offside when the pass comes back to him, but he basically punches the ball past the goalkeeper (who otherwise makes the save!), for 1-0 to Argentina!
The second replay (at about 9:00) conveniently cuts off the key part of the situation, but it's clear by this time that he punched it in.
To add insult to injury, he seals the 2-1 victory (which basically inferno-ed the Argentina-England rivalry) with The Goal of the Century four minutes later -- when Maradona dribbled past six English defenders to go 2-0 up (my guess? the same six guys in the first clip).
So what call could be considered more earth-shaking than The Hand of God???
Number 1: England-West Germany 1966 World Cup, England. FINAL
Yep, the Grand Final of the tournament, home side in the Grand Final.
In fact, the match is now in extra time at 2-2. Thirty minutes of play, then penalties for the World Cup.
Alan Ball takes a cross to Geoff Hurst (clip starts about 10:51) who fires the ball off the crossbar (much like the England-Germany match previously referenced in this post!) and the ball drops tantalizingly close (much closer than the 2006 call) to the line.
After consultation with the Soviet linesman, Swiss referee Gottefried Dienst scores the goal for 3-2, and England is in hysterics, champions at 4-2 at the end of the two hours.
But was that 3-2 goal good? All of the ball over all of the line?
The original angle is completely inconclusive -- the ball is directly behind the goalkeeper and you can't see anything!
The key angle appears to be the ground angle at 11:33 of the clip. From the angle of the camera (even by 1966 camera work), it is almost impossible, by any measure, to believe this was a goal at any time.
But the match is in England, and I believe intimidation and the possibility of a riot should West Germany have won the match basically gave Dienst and the Soviet linesman an opportunity to fix the match -- which I believe they did.
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