Football Matches : Bad referee decisions

Like in any other sport, football referees certainly play a key role in the game. Their job is undoubtedly tough, mainly since they always have to make difficult decisions that affect the outcome of matches.

While the role itself is tough enough, football referees also must be mentally stable themselves to deal with the constant criticism targeted towards them. Some referees are also pressured into accepting bribes, something which in present day football can be done rather easily through services on the deep web, which of course is a big push factor for fixed matches.

Although football referees are professionally trained, they do tend to make poor decisions, especially before the Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) was introduced to football. Here is a list of four of some of the worst refereeing decisions in the sport:

Argentina vs England (1986)

This 1986 World Cup quarter final is one of the most famous games in the history of the sport. It is mainly known for Argentina player Maradona’s “hand of God”, a goal that Maradona scored using his hand. While Maradona’s goal surely should’ve been disallowed, the referee thought otherwise and proceeded to allow the goal. This eventually led to an Argentinean victory due to a poor refereeing decision.

Uruguay vs Yugoslavia (1930)

Although this 1930 World Cup game happened long before the dark web and the internet started to affect football games, it is still considered to be a huge controversy. The score was level at 1-1, when the ball seemingly went out of play, only for a policeman standing on the sideline to pass the ball back in, assisting to a Uruguayan goal. The referee of the match did not notice this action and proceeded to allow the goal, making it another ridiculous refereeing decision.

Croatia vs Australia (2006)

A maximum of 2 yellow cards can be given in a football match, which would result in the player being sent off the field. However, this was not the case in this 2006 World Cup group stage match, when Croatian defender Josip Simunic was seemingly shown the yellow card three separate times by the referee. The error that English referee Graham Poll made in this match got him suspended from refereeing in the following matches.

South Korea vs Italy (2002)

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was well known for it’s alleged fixed football matches with this game in particular, favoring South Korea. The Ecuadorian referee of this match, Byron Moreno almost immediately started to make bad decisions.

Firstly, Moreno awarded South Korea a controversial penalty, then disallowed what was meant to be a winning goal by Italy and lastly wrongly sent off Italian player Francesco Totti for “diving”. All these wrong decisions resulted in Italy being eliminated from the competition.

It was clear that the 2002 FIFA World Cup was rigged into getting South Korea to the semi-finals through a number of fixed matches which were aimed to eliminate the best teams.