UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

During the 2010 World Cup, there were several glaring mistakes that could’ve changed the outcome of a match. So bad, that some of the referees involved were not allowed to take charge of another match, some needed police protection and later sent home.

Cases included:

Carlos Batres of Guatemala who apparently committed so many errors in one game: Paraguay v Spain (quarterfinals):
(i) disallowed Paraguay’s legitimate 1st goal;
(ii) the saved Paraguay penalty by Oscar Cardozo should’ve been retaken due to several Spanish players encroaching the area before the ball was kicked;
(iii) Spain should’ve been awarded another penalty for the foul on David Villa right after Xabi Alonso’s saved penalty.

Koman Coulibaly of Mali refereed the USA – Slovenia match in the group stage, then controversially denied the Americans a goal. The match ended 2-2.

Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay, who made what could be the most high-profile mistake of the tournament, when he didn’t count England’s goal against Germany, even though video replays showed the ball definitely went in.

Stephane Lannoy of France, who sent off Brazil’s Kaka for a harmless challenge during the group match with Ivory Coast.

Roberto Rosetti of Italy, who allowed Argentina’s disputed first goal against Mexico in the second round.

Will the best eye cream make them see better? Compare those with the worst ever refereeing mistakes ever committed during the World Cup finals.

World Cup 1986: The infamous Hand of God incident: it was the quarterfinals in Mexico City: England against Argentina. For Maradona’s second goal, he jumped up for a header and punched the ball over Peter Shilton. The referee, Ali Bennaceur of Tunisia failed to spot the crime and the goal stood. Maradona’s remembered most for this incident, even more than the fabulous first goal which he also scored.

World Cup 1982: France vs Germany semifinal. Michel Platini’s through ball cleared striker Patrick Battiston goalbound. Then German goalie Harald Schumacher crashed into his face, knocking him unconscious and breaking a tooth. Amazingly, the referee, Charles Corver of Holland not only not issued a booking nor a penalty, he awarded a goal kick instead! Germany went on to win the match.

World Cup 2006: Graham Poll of England is among the top 100 referees of all time according to International Federation of Football History and Statistics, and at that year’s world cup, he had been tipped to referee the final itself. His first 2 games were OK, however, in his 3rd game, which was the Croatia vs Australia match, he yellow carded Josip Šimuni? of Croatia 3 times before finally realising his error and promptly sent him off. First it was in the 61st minute, then Poll carded him again for a tackle in the 90th, but failed to send him off. In the dying seconds of the game 3 minutes later, Šimuni? argued with Poll, and received his “third” yellow card, this time followed by a red card. FIFA at first noted all 3 yellows in its match report, later removing the 2nd booking. As a result, Poll was removed from the knockout stage referee list. He retired from refereeing any international tournament finals after that. In his 2007 autobiography, Poll wrote that when he booked Šimuni? for the second time, he had wrongly recorded him as “Australia #3″ because of Šimuni?’s “Australian accent.”

Popularity: unranked [?]