Credit to @Football_Tweet for this idea, because I saw them pose the question online, and it sparked quite the fiery debate.
We won’t quite get the level of direct debate here, which means we miss out on the toxicity of hot takes and 10 year-old insults that social media delightfully entails. What a shame.
Referees are a relevant topic at the moment, with Jurgen Klopp being fined £30,000 for shouting at Premier League officials. There has been two sides to the debate, one favouring the manager, and one favouring the officials.
I sit somewhere in between; it was out of order from Klopp, he’d admitted that, but at the same time, it’s understandable, and he’s certainly not the only manager to have a go at referees.
I’ve read a couple of books by referees and I do understand their perspective. Officials will get demonised for getting a big call wrong, yet receive practically no praise for getting a big decision right, and I think that’s something everyone in football needs to consider.
Klopp deserves credit for apologising and backing down post match, unlike Antonio Conte last week, but I think he probably deserved a touchline ban and I was surprised he didn’t get one.
As understandable as his outburst was, and while I think any manager would have done the same, reacting in that way was wrong.
It was a horrific decision from Anthony Taylor and linesman Eddie Smart, but probably not the worst of all time, so let’s get to the worst decisions in football history!
Lampard’s Ghost Goal
Germany vs England. World Cup 2010. Round of 16.
It’s 2-1 to Germany. After going 2-0 down, England have pulled a goal back through Matt Upson’s face.
Frank Lampard has had a very poor tournament, as has the whole of the England team.
It drops to the Chelsea man 20 yards out, who clips it on off the bar to get England level. Beers fly.
Oh no, something’s gone wrong here. Something is horribly wrong. Why are they playing on?
The goal’s not been given.
“It was a very fast shot that I did not see properly, even though I was located in the right place,” referee Jorge Larrionda told El País.
Lampard’s ghost goal was one of the most popular responses to my question and I can certainly see why.
Christian O’Neill, a committed member of my sport society, said: “It was bullshit; it was well past the line. That incident is one of the reasons why fifa decided to bring goal-line technology to Brazil World Cup in 2014.”
Joseph Smith, a fellow full back at Kouris Erimi in 2018/2019, said: “It was the first one that came to mind- I remember it being a huge travesty.”
Charley Young, still recovering from narrowly missing out on goal of the week on Monday, said that it still bugs him to this day.
Friends Nick Devine and my dad both agreed that it’s certainly up there amongst the worst of all time.
I have to agree, but I wonder if the officials were fooled by the reaction of the players.
What Manuel Neuer does is genius. Instead of stopping, or shouting at his defenders, or punching the ground, or kicking the ball back into his net, or any normal reaction when a keeper knows he has conceded, Neuer picks the ball up as if nothing’s happened and launches a counter attack.
The England players don’t even seem that convinced. It’s easy to forget the influence player reaction can have on referee’s decisions, especially before they had the benefit of VAR.
To be completely honest, watching it back in real time, I can see how he made the mistake. I can see how he wasn’t sure, and to give the goal, you have to be sure.
Obviously, it’s a shocking decision, and given the nature of the size of the game, it’s got to be one of the worst in history. Still, I think more blame should be lumped on FIFA for waiting until the Lampard goal to finally introduce the necessary technology.
In addition, had the goal stood, I’m pretty sure England would have lost the game anyway, with them going on to lose 4-1 after the disallowed goal.
Chelsea 1-1 Barcelona, 2009
This got the most nominations. While not a single decision, this was a collection of several awful decisions, which many, including me, consider to be the worst refereeing performance of all time.
I would probably add Didier Drogba to that list too. He made his feelings pretty clear at full time.
Mr. Chelsea himself, Giorgos Kokonos, said: “Three OBVIOUS pens were not given. Abidal taking down Drogba in the first half, Pique’s flying arm from Anelka’s kick right before barcelona scored and my personal favourite Etoo’s handball right infront of the ref in the 90th minute from Ballack’s shot.
Chelsea were robbed from winning the 2009 Champions League and Drogba said it best: It is a fucking disgrace.”
An absolute expert when it comes to European football, a good friend of mine for around 12 years, Alex Bazarov, said: “Well, it definitely brings up the view that the game was fixed for Barcelona to win.
“The referee didn’t give multiple penalties to Chelsea which were clear. It’s the worst refereeing decision because it led to Barcelona winning the trophy. Love it or hate it, with VAR, at least one penalty would have been given.”
The point about VAR is an interesting one, and one I’ll return to when I put my nomination forward at the end of this piece.
Soto Evagorou, a man who shamefully converted from the Red of Liverpool to the blue of Chelsea, said: “When you have the very referee admitting he should have given Chelsea several penalties, or that Hiddink believed the match was fixed, it makes a pretty solid case for terrible refereeing.”
Ollie Bray, my ex-origami partner in school, said: “I think because of the importance of the game, and the fact it wasn’t just a couple of decisions, there were about 10 that weren’t given and should’ve been.”
I will add, however, that the referee’s performance in the Italy vs South Korea match in the World Cup in 2002, was just as bad.
Pan added that the decision not to give a handball against Etoo in particular should be considered the worst decision of them all.
He said: “It was so obvious, it was literally right in front of the referee, and it was decisive in Barcelona reaching the Champions League final.”
Ollie, Alex, Pan, my dad, and of course me, aren’t Chelsea fans, yet we all think of this is the worst refereeing performance of all time. That says it all really.
I don’t believe in Uefalona or other childish piffle along those lines, but I do think referees (naturally) get quite heavily influenced by certain circumstances, which makes them biased. So, in the South Korea game, it feels like there was definitely a bias towards helping out the underdog and the host nation.
Statistics, if needed, prove that Premier League referees do have certain biases. Paul Tomkins has proved this on several occasions.
More on these tendencies later.
The Hand Of God
To me, the most iconic mistake in football history. How on earth did Diego Maradona get away this? More importantly, how did Peter Shilton not get this hand to the ball before such a tiny man?
Pan described the handball as “the biggest robbery in football history” with my dad somewhat concurring, adding “You have to bear in mind the significance of the game”.
Michalis Kyriakou, now the best footballer to feature on my blog, agreed that it has to be considered the single worse decision.
In the referee’s defence, the commentator doesn’t notice the handball either. He says “England players are asking for offside” even though the ball has been played by an England defender, so it can’t be offside, and if any further help is needed, all the England players are running around pointing to their hands.
Even after watching a replay, the commentator (who’s name I can’t find but I think it’s John Motson) still doesn’t clock that it’s handball. He’s not paid to make the right decisions, but maybe it’s not as obvious as it seems.
It’s probably the nature of it more than anything. This wasn’t an accident like Thierry Henry’s handball against Ireland, this was a genuine and successful attempt at cheating, and in a huge match.
Honourable mentions
Some honourable mentions from everyone before my rant!
Schumacher on Battiston
If you haven’t seen this clip, go watch it now. This challenge could have killed Battiston, and that’s not a joke, or an exaggeration. Decision? Goal kick.
Nick handily reminded me of this horror tackle, and as decisions go, pre-VAR, I think I might have to put this as the worst.
Michel Platini said that on the pitch, he thought Battiston was dead. He wasn’t that far off- the Frenchman slipped into a coma, with damaged vertebrae and several teeth knocked out.
Cheick Tiote disallowed goal vs Man City
There’s been a few goals disallowed in a similar vein to this, but this is the first I remember and probably the hardest to justify.
Will Hales from Newcastle (unsurprisingly perhaps) reminded me of this one.
The rule which prevents players obstructing the keeper’s view from an offside position, therefore making it harder for him to save the ball, makes total sense.
However, when a shot flies into the top corner and the player in question is making no difference the keeper’s vision of that shot, the decision no longer makes sense.
This was an extremely bizarre call, a crap call, and a call that impacted the title race. City went onto win 2-0, and won the Premier League Title by two points.
Also, it was an incredible strike from Tiote. Rest in peace.
Ronaldo disallowed goal vs Serbia
This one was put forward by Spurs fan Dimitris; it’s not quite Lampard’s ghost goal, but perhaps goals of this nature not being given these days is far more extraordinary seeing as we’ve had goal line technology for eight years or so.
I don’t know why the technology wasn’t used here, but ironically, it led to Ronaldo bellowing at the official in the same way that Klopp is being lambasted for now. What made the headlines? The decision or the reaction? It was of course the decision. Ronaldo got a yellow card.
Jordi Alba disallowed goal vs Betis
I had never heard of this, but Yasser Ahmed raises a great point. This was an awful decision and proved to be a huge blow to Barcelona’s title charge as they narrowly missed out at the end of the season.
Again, I find it baffling that goal line technology was not in use at an important La Liga game in 2017.
My opinion- no red card for Harry Kane’s challenge on Robertson
The instinctive response to this is probably that I’m being biased because it was against my team. Admittedly, this could be playing a role, but I’m still going to stand by it. Given the circumstances, this is the worst decision I’ve ever seen.
What circumstances?
Okay- first of all, for me, the worst decision in football history has to be post-VAR. Before technological assistance, referees made mistakes because they missed things, or they didn’t see incidents from the best position possible.
These could be argued as honest mistakes; all the decisions mentioned in this article, I’m sure, would have been reversed with technology.
With this challenge, there was technology. The referee was able to watch this back on a screen, watch all the replays, all the angles, and still concluded that there was no red card.
I don’t know a single person, apart from Kane himself (who said he got the ball instead of just apologising) who thinks that this is not a clear red card. How on earth does a professional who’s paid a lot of money to make simple decisions like this, mess it up so badly?
Had the officials looked back and said, okay, under the pressure, we got that wrong, I would still consider it one of the worst, but probably not the worst.
However, the officials went on to try and justify their decisions using possibly the most flawed logic I have ever heard.
Robertson could have had his career ended by this tackle. Had his foot been planted, his leg would have been snapped in half, and he would have gone to hospital.
Fortunately, the left back’s foot is slightly raised, which probably saves him from having his bone sticking out of his leg David Busst style.
Incredibly, this is what the Premier League officials used as justification for not sending Kane off.
They argued that because Robertson’s leg wasn’t broken, it wasn’t a red card.
What?
No, seriously- “According to The Athletic, the officials were satisfied with the decision because Robertson – having jumped – was not caught as badly as he might have been if his leg was planted.”
That’s like saying, it’s perfectly fine that someone tried to shoot you in the face. They missed by an inch and the bullet brushed your hair, because you moved your face out the way at the last moment. Therefore, it’s okay, and we will let off the offender with a warning.
And then you wonder why Klopp might feel resentful towards referees.
The officials added that they considered Kane’s disciplinary history when deciding that there was no need to brandish a red card. Because it had been many years before the England captain’s previous red card, they declared that this could be used as a logical reason not to send him off.
There’s a small flaw in that logic- it lacks consistency. In fact there is no consistency. Why was Robertson sent off in the same game, when he had never been sent off for Liverpool, or Hull City, or Dundee?
Why was Darwin Nunez sent off this season when he’s only had one red card in his life and it was years ago?
There’s hundreds of examples where this logic was not used for other players, but used for Kane.
Let’s get to the elephant in the room- it was because he’s the England captain. There’s plenty of research to show that English players, in general, get favourable decisions from Premier League referees.
This isn’t just speculation; it’s grounded in facts. And when referees use excuses that are along the lines of the dinosaur ate my homework, it doesn’t help to deny that they didn’t want to send off England’s supposed role model captain.
So, because of the officials’ dreadful attempt at justifying this horrendous decision, as well as having the technology at hand to correct their mistake, I consider this to be the worst decision I have ever seen.
The worst performance in a match though, is probably Chelsea vs Barcelona in 2009.
Anyway, that’s all on referees for today. Thank you to everyone for their contributions. Positive feedback is always appreciated and will encourage me to do these types of articles more!
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