5 of the worst fouls in football history

#3 Nigel de Jong on Xabi Alonso

By far the worst foul ever committed in a World Cup final, the most shocking thing about Nigel de Jong’s karate-style assault on Spain’s Xabi Alonso remains that the Dutch enforcer somehow didn’t get a red card for it.

Referee Howard Webb instead booked the player, determined not to let the final game of 2010’s World Cup go out with a whimper as Holland’s players simply lost the plot and descended into thuggery.

In the end, the match broke the record for the most yellow cards ever awarded in a World Cup final with fourteen – nine to Holland and five to Spain – more than doubling the previous record total of six. Holland’s Johnny Heitinga ended up being sent off in extra time for a second yellow but how de Jong survived is anyone’s guess.

Half an hour of the game hadn’t even passed when Alonso leapt to head an aerial ball and was met with a jumping front kick directly to the chest from de Jong, who clearly had zero intention of winning the ball, as his eyes were on Alonso throughout.

In referee Webb’s defence, had he dismissed de Jong so early, the game may have become so one-sided in favour of Spain that it could’ve become farcical. And the game had already been established as a hard-hitting one as two players from both sides had been booked already.

But by not sending de Jong off, Webb ensured that he would go down in history as the ref who only gave a yellow card for a tackle that would’ve been more at home in the UFC’s octagon than on a football pitch.