The mystical aura of the great soccer scandals

The mystical aura of the great soccer scandals

These are moments that have been memorized in our memory. Inseparable. We think of them when we even hear "Football World Cup." They belong to our football socialization and have partly found their way into everyday language.

The hand of God. Photo by Dall E 3 from a prompt by Thomas Look

The most beautiful goals or the boundless rejoicing after winning the title are even more critical than scandals and unbelievable events in our collective memories of a football World Cup.

Why is it like this? Because a mystical aura also surrounds every scandal. These stories from the grey zone are fascinating and often transfigured like legends with dazzling player personalities or one-hit wonders among the World Cup players.

 These stories are carried by the incredible media significance of the football World Cup—no scandal without press coverage. One of the greatest players of all time has even twice managed to be entered in the World Cup Black Book.

 The great players and those who were only thought to shape a World Cup have lived off this double pass with the media for decades. Any Press is Good Press, they say. The danger is that the scandals of the big players have, in many cases, reduced their world careers to a single scene, a blackout, a foul, and an unprofessional action. Of course, that doesn't do justice to their footballing significance and their entire works, but that's how the sport is and how people are.

Almost every big player is surrounded by a Scandal 

Ronaldo at peak level. Image by Dall E 3 from a prompt by Thomas Look

But the scandals that surround the greatest World Cup players of all time, like a legend, are not exclusive. Football is a team sport, and when it comes to the enormous pressure situations experienced at many World Cup tournaments, where not only a few hot-heads blow the fuses but also overburdened referees are in action, it quickly becomes scandalous.

Goal fraud and hair-raising mistakes are often speculated but rarely proven corruption around World Cup matches. Before a World Cup, the teams sit together for up to eight weeks in training camps and team hotels. Camp fever is rampant. A scandal in German World Cup history that was mentioned but no less ugly was played out in 1978 in the quarters of the DFB in Argentina.

Football and Politics are always complex constellations that create bizarre World Cup moments. And that is already in the childhood days of today's largest sporting event, alongside the Olympics in 1934 and 1938. A dictator uses the World Cup in his own country and corrupts the course of the tournament. We are left speechless with events that make us angry and helpless. This was also the case in the 1970s, during this politically turbulent decade in South America. Over the past 40 years, dozens of authors have been trying to come to terms with what happened at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Several unveiling books document the World Cup, where the world was a guest of criminals. Argentina 78 was a surreal world championship where all the wrong details would probably never come to light.

How did this happen? That's just one of many questions the fan is often left alone with. FIFA's decisions seem hardly understandable in the age of football leaks, redemption insanity, and exit clauses. You often feel they must be pushed through against all odds, especially during a World Cup. Or have you ever wondered how a fan vote on the disgraced Diego Armando Maradona would have turned out at the 1994 World Cup? Even a scandal at a World Cup that hasn't even been played is perfect and can be found in the chronicle. The environment of the World Cup and the dubious award procedures, which almost smell of coconspiracynd bribery, and the host countries with a questionable understanding of democracy leave the fans more and more disgusted. Confidence in football and the organizations organizing it is dwindling.

The World Cup qualification also offers Scandals and Mass...

The 'Battle of Santiago' football match from the 1962 FIFA World Cup. Photo by Dall E 3 from a prompt by Thomas Look

Because a World Championship is insane. Every country struggles to be part of it, which is more the case than at any continental championship. Therefore, the favorites who stay on the track are always the first losers in qualifying.

This is true for a hot-blooded football nation that would have loved to be "invited to Germany" in 2006 only to be condemned to watch.

Before the World Cup in Germany, the first European Champion of 1960 had no desire for FIFA's power games. He took a premature end in the qualifiers, knowing full well to save his face. After all, football is not always everything.

Here are 25 scandals around the World Cup that kept players, fans, and the media on their toes and are still doing so today. Moments that will forever be inseparable from the world's biggest football tournament.

Next: Scandal 25 - Horror on the Bosporus - The Horror Night in Istanbul

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