Over in the World Cup thread, amanset linked to a foul by the Brazilian goalkeeper(Brazil vs France World Cup 1986 - Carlos Foul on Bellone - YouTube) in the 1986 World Cup. I was astonished not only at how nakedly obvious the foul was, but also that it didn’t even draw the referee whistle for a free kick, let alone the red(or at least yellow) card it deserved. What are the egregious displays of referee blindness in football that stand out for you? I mean, besides the hand of god thing.
German goalkeeper Toni Schumacher’s “challenge”, assault being the more accurate term, on French defender, substitute Patrick Battiston, in the semi-final of the 1982 World Cup takes a metric shedload of beating.
Yeah, I would say this one. I only looked it up on YouTube because someone mentioned it in the World Cup thread and was shocked by how violent it was. I understand he cracked three vertebrae.
Maradona’s handball?
OK, four replies in and both winners mentioned. Close the thread. Retire the internet. Our work here is done.
I just looked again at the Schumacher foul to see if it was as bad as I remember,
Oh, my yes. That explains why they show it far less often than Maradona’s handball
I perfer to call that “Shilton’s folly.”
I couldn’t remember if the ref gave a foul or not against Schumacher. I did know he was not booked.
No foul, after they’d stretchered Battiston off (and located his teeth) Schumacher took the goal kick.
That’s the one I came to post.
I don’t know anything about football, but even I know about the Hand of God.
A few that spring to mind - Worst one I can recall domestically in recent years was Ben Thatcher (city) on Pedro Mendes (portsmouth) - disgraceful ‘challenge’ from a shithouse of a player:
Speaking of shithouses, Kevin Nolan (Newcastle) on Victor Anichebe (Everton) was a real leg-breaker. Big Vic is a man mountain, a smaller man would have snapped under that two-footer - still put Vic out for ages with ligament damage and led to a court case:
Still photo: Victor Anichebe settles after suing Newcastle over Kevin Nolan tackle | Daily Mail Online
This is the blatant foul that sent Duncan Ferguson to prison:
Surprisingly innocuous really - just a typical exchange of views in a Scottish football game. Ref had a clear view and didn’t even book him.
Too late to edit - I missed the referee blindness theme of the OP. The Thatcher and Ferguson fouls qualify - Thatcher only got a yellow card for that assault (!), but was retroactively disciplined. Nolan got a straight red.
Yeah, Schumacher’s assault on Battiston at the 1982 World Cup. Absolutely no doubt about it because:
- It’s one of the most violent foul that I’ve seen in over 30 years, resulting in vertebra damage and three broken teeth.
- No foul according to the referee.
- Consequently, no card for Schumacher either, not even a warning.
- Germany was awarded a goal kick.
For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGq7VcaHoqo
To be fair to the ref, I think he played advantage thinking the French would score. In those days had to make an instant decision rather than the (I presume a FIFA directive) current system of letting a few seconds go and then awarding a free kick if there’s no advantage obtained.
That said, even without the penalty decision he really should have had a card of some sort. I’m not sure if the rule for a straight red card for this type of foul was yet in force by FIFA at this time, but IIRC the early incarnation specified that a player had to be heading directly towards the goal rather than the simpler ‘denying a clear goalscoring opportunity’ that seems to be the current directive.
Jimmy Hill (a famous English ex-footballer and pundit) wasn’t impressed with the ref’s decision and even got a bit religious in his co-commentating, claiming that “Higher Footballing Powers” were responsible for Zico’s penalty miss.
It sounds like Sean Connery announcing for the second part of that video…
Nobody remembers this chick from UNM? I don’t believe the fouls were even discovered until they reviewed the film after the game.
I forgot about her. That was an epic performance. Suarez is probably texting her right now.
:eek: What a psycho! Makes Vinnie Jones look like a choirboy.
I thought the Ferguson one wasn’t as bad as has been made out. This was a time when fighting wasn’t an automatic sending off, though such a head butt was *likely *to result in a sending off. The butt was to the side of the head. The victim was not bleeding afterwards. From the tv pictures I couldnt exactly tell if contact was certainly made(though other angles show contact certainly was made). I suppose what im saying is that even just a movement of the head into another players head would mean a definite sending off today. Back in the early 1990’s it was not.
I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I think the Schumacher one can be seen as a collision, since they were heading towards each other, Schumacher jumps barely an instant after Battiston gets rid of the ball, and it would be tough to tell how much distance there is between them especially from where the referee is looking at it. It took me a couple of viewings at slow motion from different angles to be reasonably sure it was a foul.
As such, it’s a bad/terrible foul, made more so by the fact that Battiston was injured, but in my head it doesn’t cross over into ‘blatant’ like the one in the OP(where, interestingly, it seems that both Battiston and Platini are again involved in the play). There, the French player has actually maneuvered past the Brazilian goal keeper, and is about to run by but the g/k reaches out and tries to drag him down.
Yeah there was not a lot in that by the standards of the day - Jock McStay was embarrassed to give evidence at the trial. A guilty verdict was always going to lead to prison, though - the big man had a few convictions for assault under his belt at the time and was on a final warning.
The real travesty was the SFA trying to make an example of someone and bringing a criminal case in the first place.