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With the FIFA World Cup 2018 a little more than a week away, football fans all across the globe look all set for the football fiesta. The biggest prize in football is up for grabs, and the participating nations are gearing up to battle it out for international glory.
World Cup has always been an intriguing affair. A tournament which has left the world bemused at times. It is a pure footballing delight with a fair share of controversies and scandals to its name throughout the history.
Politics, match-fixing, bribery - the World Cup has seen it all. With Mexican national side already involved in a prostitution scandal, this World Cup seems to be no different than the previous versions of the tournament.
Let's have a recap and revisit 3 of the many infamous controversies and scandals that affected the World Cup.
#3 The Battle of Santiago (1962)
The name comes from a very infamous and action-packed (for all the wrong reasons) encounter between Italy and Chile.
It was the 7th edition of the World Cup and hosts Chile were on thin ice. The preparations for the World Cup took a major blow because of the Valdivia Earthquake in 1960. A recovering Chile was doing all it could to make the tournament a success when an article published by two Italian reporters on Chile lead to an uproar.
The article defined the capital city of Santiago as a backwater dump in a small and proud country infested with poverty, illiteracy and open prostitution and the decision to allow Chile to continue as hosts as pure madness. The Chilean media hit back at the Italians and labelled them as fascists, mafiosos and drug addicts.
The bad blood between the two nations reflected in their infamous and bloody encounter at the World Cup. The match saw two players sent off, punches thrown around, scuffles and spitting between the two teams and a total of four interventions by the Police.
Chile went onto win the match 2-0, and this match inspired the referee Ken Aston to invent the yellow and the red cards.
#2 The disgrace of Gijon (1982)
The World cried for Algeria and spat on West Germany and Austria after this match.
The World Cup of 1982 produced one of the most disgraceful matches in the history of football. It was the last match of the first round for the second group to be played between West Germany and Austria.
The other two teams - Algeria and Chile had already played their last game the day before. West Germany and Austria were aware that a win for West Germany would see both of them through to the next round at the expense of Algeria. Algeria, having beaten West Germany, needed an Austrian victory to proceed to the next round.
Germans began the game on an aggressive note and went on to score the first goal of the match after 10 minutes through Horst Hrubesch. The next 80 minutes that followed the goal saw both the teams settling down and passing the ball aimlessly. No real attempts were made to score from either side.
West Germany was a footballing giant in the days. Their attitude towards the game faced a lot of criticism. Some Algerian fans went on to throw money on the field. The events led to an investigation of a possible match-fixing scandal, but both the teams were cleared of any allegations later on by FIFA.
#1 El Maracanazo (1990)
1990 World Cup and its qualifying tournament was perhaps the most controversial of all. If things would have gone according to Chile's plans, then it would have cost Brazil qualification to the 1990 World Cup.
Argentina was the holder and hence had an automatic qualification for the World Cup. The remaining teams contested for the remaining berths. Brazil, Chile, and Venezuela were in the same group. After three matches, both Chile and Brazil had 5 points, and Chile needed to defeat Brazil to ensure automatic qualification from the group.
The match saw Brazilian Careca score a goal in the 49th minute, but the controversy began when the Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas fell into the ground in the 67th minute, pretending to be hurt by a flare thrown by the Brazilian fans. The Chilean players and officials left the pitch immediately in protest.
The CONMEBOL went on to review the incident on TV which revealed that the flare did not hit Rojas and landed a meter away from the Chilean. Even his injury had no traces of gunpowder or burn marks. Instead, it was a clean cut.
On questioning, Rojas gave in. He went on to reveal that he had cut himself with a blade hidden in his gloves to cause a scandal. Chilean coach Orlando Aravena was the mastermind behind all this and wanted to nullify the results and have a rematch on neutral soil or see through the disqualification of Brazil.
FIFA banned keeper Rojas and barred Chile from participating in the 1994 qualifying tournament as a punishment. FIFA even went on to declare Brazil the winners of the match with an official scoreline of 2-0.
