Top World Cup Controversies...

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The world cup has given football fans to many a moment to cherish but disgrace and controversies have also been a part of it.From Maradona's infamous "hand of god" to Zidane's headbutt. 1.Maradona's "Hand of God": It is rather strange that the most controversial goal of football history bears the name of god as Maradona himself had described it,had occurred during the quarterfinal match between England and Argentina at the 1986 football world cup.Maradona leapt in to the air to net the ball palssed by Steve Hodge past England's goalie Peter Shilton. 2.France's pride Zinadene Zidane was sint off in extra-time during their final match against Italy in 2006.During extra time, Materrazi and Zidane's jersey. An angry Zidane, headbutted Marco thereby earing a red card. Later Zidane justified his action saying that he was prompted to do so because of the Italian's verbal insults and that he would rather die than apologising to Marco. 3.The whole nation crucified Beckham for England's early exit in the 1998 World Cup. Beckham was fouled by Argetine Simione, and instead of waiting for the referee to take action, Beckham retaliated by kicking Simione back. Referee Kim Milton Nielsen issued a red card, and Beckham was sent off. 4.The price Columbian Andre Escobar had to pay for his self goal was his own life. During the 1994 US World Cup, Columbia was playing against the home team while Escobar's ill-fated attempt to stop John Harkes shot resulted in a self goal. The US won the match, paving way to Columbia's early exit.Escobar was murdered in revenge for his own goas. He was shot outside a bar and the killer fired 12 bullets on him shouting 'Goal.. Ironically, Escobar who always wore the number 2 jersey was nicknamed "The immortal number 2". 5.In the 1982 world cup France was at its attaching best and virtually unstoppable. In their match against Kuwait they had scored three goals and when Alain Gireasse netted the fourth he was astounded as there was a pitch invasion by the president of the Kuwaitei football Association, Sheikh Fahid Al-Ahamad Al-Sabah who insisted that the goal was a whistle blown from the stands and stopped playing. 6. Ahn Jung-Hwan was the ixecutioner of Italian squad at the 2002 South Korea World cup. It was Ahn's golden goal that resulted in the early expulsion of Azurris. Ahn was then playing for Italian club Perugia. After he scored the goal against Italy, the club owner Luciano Gaucci cancelled his contract saying that he has no intention of playing someone who destroyed Italian football. 7. When it comes to controversies, the Argentinians cant be left behind. During the 1978 World Cup, Argentina was involved in a notorious controversy when they beat a paralyzed Peruvian side 6-0 to qualify for the finals. Rumours had it that Peru players were paid handsomely to fix the score. 8.The 2002 World Cup was a hot bed of controversies as hosts South Korea made it to the semi-finals with Italy, Spain and Portugal crying foul. Most of South Korea's oppositions claimed that they had been on the rough side of refereeing decisions as five gaols scored against the Koreans were disallowed and three opposition sere awarded a dodgy penalty against them to knock them out in the second round. 9.In previous World Cup, during the England vs Portugal, knock-out tie, we witnessed an unusual incident of club teammates take on each other on the field. The teammates in question are Portugal's Christiano Ronaldo and Wayan Rooney. Ronaldo's gesture to the gefree, after Rooney stepped on Portuguese defender Richrdo Caralho's groin, saw an agitated Rooney shove Ronaldo, with Rooney being red-carded after the incident . English went to lose this game and were knocked-out of World Cup 2006 10. During the 1982 World Cup, West Germany were on the brink of being knocked out after a shock 2-1 defeat of West Germany by Algeria. With Algeria completing their group matches with a 3-2 win over Chile the previous day, West Germany and Austria faced each other both knowing that a win for Germany by one or two goals would see both teams progress on goal difference at the expense of the Africans. Once Germany scored, the game descended into a non-competitive farce. So much so that the Spanish crowd called for both teams to be ejected from the competition while a disgruntled Algerian FA lodged an official complaint with FIFA about the contrived result. FIFA ruled that the result should stand, but as a direct result all final matches in the group stages would be played simultaneously.