After the collision, the referee immediately ran to the attacking player and showed him a yellow and red card in quick succession, thus sending him off the field immediately. I can’t understand the commentators, but i can only presume that the send-off was for “taking a dive,” i.e., for pretending that the goalkeeper had knocked him over in order to try to draw a penalty shot.
But, as the replay shows, the goalkeeper clearly took the player’s legs out from under him, without getting anywhere near the ball. It was a clear penalty, and should have been a penalty shot. Hungary should have received a penalty shot and probably scored a goal; instead, they got no opportunity to score, and lost a player.
A classic “home” call (the game was played in Istanbul). Although, admittedly, the difference between a foul and a dive in the box can be a matter of inches, and if the referee has a bad angle, it can be hard to tell whether or not contact was made.
And DSYoungEsq beat me to the “Hand of God” goal. A classic.
I dont remember for sure but I think the Steelers played the Lions,the game went to overtime, Steelers called the flip correctly and the ref said he did not…Lions got the ball and won the game.
According to the referee, he heard both "heads’ and “tails” in that order, and a Lions player, Robert Bailey, said that one Steeler called heads, while another called tails. Bailey also said, “That way, no matter what happens, you can argue. It’s an old trick.” Also, enhanced audio of conversations between Jerome Bettis and Bill Cowher during the ensuing arguments apparently reveal Bettis admitting that he essentially changed his call while the coin was in the air (“I said ‘hea-tails.’ I said, ‘hea ….’ I said, ‘hea ….’”), in which case the referee was obliged to take the first call he heard.
The keeper should also have been sent off for denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity, although it’s rarely called in a situation like that.
Take a look at the “foul” that led to Ronaldinho’s free kick goal in a recent friendly. Now it doesn’t have any significance since the game is meaningless, but wow to that call.
Booker Turner, (in)famous west coast college basketball referee during the 80’s, called shots that went over the backboard as good shots - not once BUT TWICE.
I don’t remember exactly which game, but I remember Brent Musberger referring to some play in a Texas-Oklahoma game that it was “the worst call he had ever seen in his life.” All I remember was that it involved an end zone play, but I don’t remember whether a score was improperly credited or denied. This would have been at least 10 years ago.
No mention of the phantom touchdown for USC v Michigan in the Rose Bowl? One of the stinkiest ones I ever saw.
For homerism, it’s hard to top the home plate umpire overruling a correct call by the third base umpire saying the Japanese runner didn’t wait for a fly ball to be touched before scoring in the Japan v US World Cup.
I just remembered one that probably only Australians and a few ardent Olympics track-and-field fans would know of.
It was the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and in the final of the triple-jump competition, Australian Ian Campbell made a jump that looked good enough to win gold. The Russian officials flagged him for a foul, despite the fact that the TV replays (not as good quality as the ones we have now) showed no indication that he overstepped the mark.
The Russians ended up taking gold and silver in the event, with Campbell finishing in 5th. I was only 11 at the time, but i remember the storm of controversy it caused in Australia.
I couldn’t find very much at all about the incident on the web, except for this story.
I don’t remember anything about the Brazilian athlete, but that’s not too surprising. The Australia media tends to be especially parochial during the Olympics, focusing almost exclusively on Aussie athletes.
The UNC-Virginia game this afternoon had a terrible miscall: a field goal which went through the lower corner of the uprights was initially ruled a miss. While these thigns sometimes happen, and replays caught the error, the reason for the miss was hilarious: The referee standing at the base of the field goal posts responsible for checking if the ball went through, panicked when the kick started sailing towards him, and ducked down, looking away from the ball.
That was Bob Davidson, the worst official working in North American sports. That was one of two abysmal calls by Davidson in the WBC, both favoring the USA.
The old joke “And (low score) from the Russian judge” is not really a joke; Communist judges and officials cheated at almost every opportunity during Olympic competitions, often quite openly and without the slightest interest in honestly or fair play.
Sure, but there are also incidents which don’t rise to the level of “cheating,” but which also seem too systematic or sustained to be called a “gaffe.” Quite a few of the “homer” calls described here seem to be in that grey area.
Your own Example #3 of Eric Gregg’s strike zone in that NLCS game also seems to be such an in-between example. It’s not cheating in the way that Soviet Olympic officials cheat, but it also seems like more than just a momentary lapse in judgment or attention that we might label a gaffe. It’s not quite the same as a single blown call at first base, or a missed tag.
I remember some years back England losing a rugby international in bizarre circumstances: A penalty kick at goal was awarded to them late in the game and as it was a windy day, the kicker had a “placer” - a teammate lying prone on the ground to hold the ball upright until the instant before he kicked it. The kick sailed through the uprights but the referee disallowed it because the placer was in front of the ball and therefore offside. As any international referee should have known, a placer is considered out of play for the duration of the kick and hence exempt from being called offside.
Not a game of tremendous importance, but I remember a Kentucky-Florida football game where Derek Abney seemingly returned a kickoff for a touchdown, breaking the career return TD record. The touchdown was called back due to a flag for a block in the back, despite there being no one within 15 yards of the flag.
A lot of chatter is made about the end of the 1984 Texas-OU game. OU made an apparent interception in the endzone to seal a win, but it was ruled out of bounds, and Texas was able to kick a field goal for the tie. Replays show the catch was made a good 2 yards in bounds.
No one but Texas fans seem to remember that earlier in the game, the OU punter was permitted to field a snap on his knees, then stand up and punt.
I have always thought this Dante Hall punt returnwas a pretty good example of horrendous officiating. At least two separate instances of clipping within a few feet of the ball carrier–and the official is less than ten yards away.