Eurosport - Thu, 07 May 13:58:00 2009
Ok Chelsea fans, we hear you, Tom Henning Ovrebo was awful and you were robbed etc, etc....
But there is no need to engage in hyperbole and call it "the worst refereeing performance of all time". Not when there is so much competition for that honour.
Try these examples out for size.
Watford v Reading - Championship 2008 - Referee: Stuart Attwell
Reading's Stephen Hunt whipped in a corner but it hit Watford's John Eustace on the thigh and went two yards wide for another corner - or so every one of the 14,761 fans in the ground thought. Not assistant referee Nigel Bannister, who somehow managed to convince referee Stuart Attwell that the ball had gone into the back of the net. "Probably the worst decision I've ever witnessed in football," said benefactor Hunt. The Watford players and fans were a little less choice with their words.
Croatia v Australia - World Cup 2006 - Referee: Graham Poll
Graham Poll made an absolute howler when he booked Josip Simunic three times and failed to spot Harry Kewell offside for one of Australia's goals in this World Cup group game. The Socceroos drew 2-2 and qualified for the next round but Sepp Blatter later commented that "had Australia lost the game and gone out of the World Cup, they would have had grounds to request a replay".
Manchester United v Tottenham - Premier League 2005 - Referee: Mark Clattenburg
Roy Carroll made a hash of a long-range effort from Pedro Mendes near the end of this Premier League game but amazingly got away with it. The ball dropped at least a yard over the line before Carroll gained control, but referee Mark Clattenburg and his officials somehow missed this fact and the match finished 0-0.
Portugal v England - Euro 2004 - Referee: Urs Meier
Sol Campbell's last minute 'winner' against the tournament hosts was ruled out by Swiss referee Urs Meier due to a 'foul' by John Terry on the Portugal goalkeeper. England lost on penalties and Meier was forced into hiding after receiving 16,000 items of hate mail. 'Urs hole' and 'Swiss banker' were amongst the highlight headlines in the British tabloids the next day.
South Korea v Italy and South Korea v Spain - World Cup 2002 - Referee: Byron Moreno (Italy match) and Gamal Al-Ghandour (Spain match).
Guus Hiddink has not always been the victim of bad refereeing performances. His South Korea side made it to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup with more than a little help from officials. In the second round, Italy were left fuming at Ecuadorian Byron Moreno as they had a goal disallowed, a penalty shout turned down, and Francesco Totti sent off for diving. In the quarters, Spain had two goals chalked off by Egyptian referee Gamal Al-Ghandour before losing on penalties.
Middlesbrough v Chesterfield - FA Cup 1997 - Referee: David Elleray
Third-tier Chesterfield were 2-1 up against Middlesbrough in their FA Cup semi-final and looked set for an unlikely place in the final when Jonathan Howard crashed a goal in off the underside of the bar to seemingly make it 3-1. However, referee David Elleray said the ball hadn't crossed the line and Middlesbrough came back and won the match on a replay.
Argentina v England - World Cup 1986 - Referee: Ali Bin Nasser
'Hand of God' - need we say any more? If Tunisia referee Ali Bin Nasser is granted an obituary in any of the English papers then it will be because of this and this alone.
France v Germany - World Cup 1982 - Referee: Charles Corver
Dutch referee Charles Corver inexplicabley awarded a goalkick when German keeper Harald Schumacher smashed into French defender Patrick Battiston during their World Cup semi-final in Spain. Battiston was sent to hospital in a coma while Schumacher helped Germany win the match on penalties.
Coventry v Crystal Palace - Division One 1980 - Referee: Derek Webb
Crystal Palace's Clive Allen fired home a perfect free kick into the top corner against Coventry at Highfield Road. The ball cannoned off the stanchion and back into play. Referee Derek Webb thought it had hit the crossbar and waved play on. Palace protested but to no avail. They went on to lose 3-1.
Brazil v Sweden - World Cup 1978 - Referee: Clive Thomas
Welsh referee Clive Thomas picked a strange time to blow for full-time in this World Cup game. With the score 1-1, Brazil sent a corner into the box and just as Zico put his head on the ball for an apparent winner Thomas decided to blow for time.
What was the worst refereeing display you have ever seen? Leave your comments below.
Comment 42 - 61 of 81
How is chelsea's cutting down Eto'o andthey countering and going through someyears ago in champions league not mentioned here????
chelsea should have gone though bt i think past events have come to haunt them. drogba's rolling around when ever someone touches him (wish someone would break his bloody legs for real. now that would show the arrogant @#$%!!).
worst decision ever,world cup final 1966,you know who...but it can.t make the top ten:))
england fourth goal in '66 should have been dissalowed too as there were fans on the pitch.
Haha, I am a Barca Fan, and a Cameroonian as well, And The better team won on wednesday, while cameroon was robbed at World cup 1994, who's complaining? Hand of God my @rse.. Stop complainint and accept defeat like men. Drogba has learned 4 words in english and was exercising the new found freedom of speech. he was diving all over the pitch, faking injury, after iniesta scored, i saw him chasing the ref and insulting the man, i didnt see drogba limping. Chelsea are CoW@rds. End of.
sorry wroung page
oh please stop crying for christ sake chelsa deserve to be put out because they have cheated ther way to the top looking forward to a man u barca final so we can win it proper this year rather than trying to get the ball past ten defenders
and how about England v. West Germany (4-2) with a 'goal' from Geoff Hurst which gave England the lead in extra time sanctioned by referee Dienst after consulting linesman's Bakramov'?
Then the match between Cameroun V. Nigeria 2000 African cup of nations Grand final in Lagos, ended with Penalties, one of Nigerian Penalties taken by player Victor Ikpeba clearly crossed the line but Referee from Tunisia ruled no Goal.Cameroun went ahead to win on penalties after teir Player Rigobot Song scored their ast penalty.
Also, the 1988 finals in Morrocco, same Nigeria V. Cameroun, Nigeria scored th best Goal of the tornament, a header Goal by Player Henry Nwosu, the Referee on that Finals overrulled the Goal and uptill today for unexplainable reasons,Cameroun later scored through a dubious Penalty award on Roger Miller, the Penalty Goal scored by Emmanuel Kunde.Significant of these two events were that, it was on the final of the Tornament and between two old rivals moreso as the finals, there would be no redemption nor consolations for the losing team.The Head of Confederations of African Football is a Camerounia so a meaning is still being read on this shameful acts.
hand of god is the most controversial i think
This one was a CL semifinal the worse in all of them
Msg 50- the non existent goal in 1966 would not have changed the outcome of the game as England would have won by one goal instead of two.
What about Italy versus South Korea and Moreno? One of the most disgraceful fixes I have ever seen.
What about the ref that didn't see Maradonna's handball too?
well ....i sort of expected that the non-existent goal in 1966 by england wouldn't be mentioned ... hypoctris
By far the wordt referree, was at the Liverpool - inter milan game, back in the sixties. The amount of:- bad - biased - ludicrous calls are far to numerous to list. but enough to say inter bough the ref (from Spain) a Villa by overlooking Milan. The ref was banned from football for life.
You must be kidding if you don't remember under top 10 what's happen 2-3 yaers ago when in the Euro qualification match Nederland-Albania, the dutch defender Melchiot put one owngoal header without nobody touch him and Mr Reffery (he was briton,i don't remember his name),clasified like foul, so not accepted just because Albania were "small" team,,,,,,,
the worst of all time was in scotland.les mottram was the ref.the ball was kicked into the goal but came flying out having hit the stantion.a defender picked the ball up and handed it to his goalkeeper.the goalie then noticed that the referee was(well les mottram) and kicked the ball upfield-play was waived on.unbelievable! the attacking team i think was dundee utd and tha defending team i think was partick thistle tho it might have been motherwell.anyway the game was at firhill or fir park.(also i think this was the reason that they stopped having stantions in the goal)sorry to be vague!
Geoff Hurst, 1966?!
The worst refereeing performance of all time it's not even here because it was a winner for England. World Cup 1966: Geoff Hurst's second goal did not cross the line! And that simply give England the World Cup...
it's very strange that FIFA and UEFA want to encourage fair play but somehow they declined to use technology to help their referees make better decisions. So in my opinion, had Mr. Ovrebo had to quit his job, blame UEFA for it.
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