20 days to Go – The Prince and the Referee

The FIFA World Cup has had its fair share of strange and controversial decisions made by referees, but perhaps one of the most bizarre and inexplicable of them all came during a match between Kuwait and France at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

The French were already sailing along to a predictable victory – the score line 3-1 in their favor – when Alan Giresse blasted a goal past a set of Kuwaiti defenders who for some reason seemed to be rooted to the spot, making no effort to go after the ball.

When asked by officials, the Kuwaitis said they had stopped in response to a whistle. No official had blown such a whistle so the players claimed maybe it had come from the stands. Initially the referee refused to listen to their pleas to have the goal disallowed and ordered play to continue with a score of 4-1.

Enter Prince Fahid, the President of the Kuwait FA. He appeared from the stands and came onto the pitch to argue with the referee himself. Amazingly the referee Miroslav Stupar gave in and decreed that the goal was to be disallowed.

Kuwait still lost 4-1 anyway and Stupar was eventually banned from officiating. The prince was also fined $16,000 for his behavior and the Kuwait team has failed to ever qualify for the tournament again.

21 Days to Go – Maradona Exits in Disgrace

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will see the return of one of the most brilliant, yet most controversial men ever to take part in the tournament – Diego Armando Maradona. After a difficult qualifying campaign (which culminated in his very off color speech to the media which he did ultimately have the good grace to publically apologize to his mother for making), Maradona is going back to the World Cup as the coach of the Argentine side.  But it is his exit from the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the US that is a controversial (yet memorable) moment still in many soccer fans minds.

At 33 in 1994, Maradona was undoubtedly a far cry from the man who scored possibly both the best and the worst goals in the 1986 World Cup to propel his team to glory (more about that another day), but it seemed he still had what it took to make the squad. In fact he looked leaner and meaner than he had for a while, with the emphasis on the leaner.

However, Diego only played in 2 games before a positive drug test saw him booted from the US and sent home in disgrace. He was accused of ephedrine doping; something he claimed was caused by drinking an energy drink.  In his autobiography he said he was used to drinking the Argentine version of the beverage as a way to boost his energy levels and lose weight.

Having run out of his own supply, his trainer bought him some from a US grocery store which Maradona still maintains had significantly different ingredients to the one he was used to and that was to blame for his positive test. Either that or his second claim, made a while later, that FIFA had approved his use of certain supplements to lose weight so that he could add his still considerable star power to the tournament; a claim that has never been proven.

Whatever the real story, it was a sad way to see one of the FIFA World Cup’s biggest stars go out, and there were many who thought his career in soccer was over altogether. But of course in typical Maradona style he has apparently risen from the ashes again and is more than ready to lend his “star power” to the World Cup once more.

22 Days to Go – The Weirdest FIFA World Cup Mascots Ever

Beginning with World Cup Willie – a lion wearing a Union Jack t shirt- back in 1966, when the FIFA World Cup was held in England, every FIFA World Cup has had its very own mascot. For South Africa 2010 there is Zakumi, a green maned leopard who loves to play soccer. Other FIFA World Cup Tournaments have seen Footix the giant rooster from France 1998, Striker the World Cup Pup who represented USA 1994 and a number of other assorted animals and small children. When “Ciao” was unleashed upon the world ahead of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy (Ciao was a stick figure who looked like he was made from red, green and white Lego blocks with a soccer ball for a head) most soccer fans thought the World Cup Mascots couldn’t get any stranger. Until the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan gave rise to Ato, Kaz and Nik.

These three were brightly colored characters who, their backstory said, played “Atmoball", a rather strange anime land version of soccer. Kaz and Nik were players while Ato was their coach. They were also each supposed to represent energy particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. Confused? So was the entire soccer watching population of the world back in 2002. Were they aliens, monsters or just distant cousins of the Pokemon? No one was ever quite sure, but they made a fortune for McDonalds who sold Happy Meal after Happy Meal emblazoned with their likenesses all over the world for the entire duration of the tournament.

By the way, in case you were interested  Ato = yellow, Kaz = purple, Nik = blue.

23 Days to Go – When FIFA Turned a Blind Eye

If you expect any organization in the world of soccer to follow the rules it is FIFA – they are after all the ultimate authority in the game worldwide. However as far as many people are concerned they dropped the ball back in 1982 when West Germany met Austria in the final group round game of the 1982 FIFA World Cup.

Before the game kicked off it was known that were West Germany to be victorious both teams would advance on to the knock out rounds at the expensive of Algeria. Even better, the Germans only needed to score a single goal.

So when Horst Hrubesch scored for West Germany in the tenth minute, a quiet consensus seemed to be made on the pitch and for the next eighty minutes no one on either side seemed to be playing any actual competitive soccer. To most observers it was fairly obvious that the whole thing was a fix.

Algeria did protest, and protest loudly, but FIFA let the result stand. Recently, former German striker and Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus got into a somewhat heated exchange with reporters in Qatar when a young Algerian journalist asked him about the 1982 “fix.” "You were not born yet in 1982,” he told him "The Algerians still believe that Germany and Austria conspired against them but this is totally untrue. Germany never act like that." Trouble is, even over 25 years later few people actually believe him.

Algeria made it to the FIFA World Cup again in 1986 but were once more knocked out in the group stages. 2010 sees them return to the world soccer stage in South Africa  but in another very tough group, as they have been drawn with the USA, England and Slovenia.

24 Days to Go – Sweden Reach the Final

There is much to be said for home field advantage in any sport and that often holds true for the FIFA World Cup as well. The very first World Cup in 1930 went to the hosts Uruguay and Italy, England, West Germany, Argentina and France have all been crowned champions playing on their home soil. Perhaps the most memorable example of a team being buoyed by the home crowds came in  1958 though, when hosts Sweden, a team not at all rated to go very far in the tournament, made it all the way to a finals meeting with the mighty Brazil.

On their way to the final Sweden disposed of Hungary, Mexico and West Germany, all teams that the pundits thought should have easily defeated Eric Person's side. Brazil – a side that in 1958 included a certain 17 year old named Pele, making his FIFA World Cup debut – were too much of a challenge in the end and won the title by beating the hosts 5-2. However, in a great show of respect for the underdog side, after they were awarded the prized Jules Rimet trophy for the first time, the Brazilian team made several laps of the pitch carrying a Swedish flag.