Biggest Football Controversies

  Image Credits It is fair to say that referee Mike Dean wasn’t on top of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger’s Christmas card following his decision to award a penalty against The Gunners in their draw with West Bromwich Albion. His decision was widely derided with Sky pundits Jamie Redknapp and Ray Parlour describing it as “awful” and “horrendous”, whilst Alan ...

The round of 16 match between the Netherlands and Portugal at the 2006 World Cup has earned notoriety for the sheer number of cards awarded by the referee for various infringements and is now referred to as the Battle of Nuremburg. The match was a stop-start affair due to the numerous times the Russian referee Valentin Valentinovich Ivanov blew his ...

Thiago Motta (Inter Milan vs. Barcelona, semi-final second leg, 2009/10) In one of the most infamous instances of a red card being dished out, Thiago Motta was sent off for a hand in the face of Barcelona midfield lynchpin Sergio Busquets. The Catalan went down on the turf as Motta got his marching orders. But what has stood out from ...

Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal vs. Chelsea) During the 2013/14 Premier League season, Arsenal were stripped 6-0 at Stamford Bridge, but apart from the harrowing scoreline the game is also remembered for one of the most bizarre red cards in football history. A penalty was awarded to the hosts after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain tipped Eden Hazard’s shot around a post with his hand. ...

In the 2005/06 Serie A season, Juventus raced their way to the title and wrapped up the league, having finished 15 points ahead of Inter Milan but instead of being awarded the Scudetto the Old Lady were relegated to Serie B after a match-fixing scandal dubbed Calciopoli came to light. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 and it implicated ...

Hooliganism in English football has been deep-rooted. Although incidents of hooliganism have become very rare in modern football, the horrible scenes during the early days of the ongoing European Championship brought it all to focus once again. The English supporters started creating trouble during their stay in Marseille before their team’s opening fixture in the competition. Things took an ugly ...

  The hand of god Diego Maradona was a fierce competitor. He wasn’t one to let go off any opportunity to gain advantage even if it was through illegal means. And England bore the brunt of his conniving ways, when he blatantly scored with his hand in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final to give his team the lead against the ...

Diego Maradona The 1986 World Cup winner is considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time. The way he led Argentina to the pinnacle of world football in 1986 has very few parallels in any sport. Maradona was blessed with superhuman abilities. His intelligence on the pitch, never say die attitude, and most importantly, his close control ...

General Franco stops Spain from participating at the 1960 Euro Back in the day when the continental European competition was first played, the map of Europe looked a whole lot different than it does today. In fact, the European Championship or Euros were then known as the European Nations’ Cup and there used to be only four teams in the ...

Republic of Ireland were making only their third appearance at a World Cup in 2002 in South Korea and Japan. There was a buzz among their fans as the team, who had two Keanes – Roy and Robbie – as their main men were set to take on the world. But then things turned sour. The Football Association of Ireland ...