Scandals In World Cup Qualifiers

Sadly even the latest World Cup qualifiers couldn’t be held without scandals. It’s enough to think about the interruption of the Brazil-Argentina match or the atrocities in Hungary vs England game. But we could already witness several other disruptions and incidents in previous seasons. Let’s see the biggest scandals in World Cup qualifiers. 

World Cup qualifiers mean important games for all participating nations. Either they are regular World Cup members or teams with big ambitions to make history. Usually, we can witness big tension between the teams and fans which can easily turn into aggressive behavior. But scandals can involve well-known and experienced players such as Thierry Henry. He helped his team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with a handball. Or Lionel Messi and Neymar who got involved in the latest World Cup qualifier scandal when their teams’ match was suddenly halted. But bribery and false refereeing also affected other qualifiers in the last few years.

Brazil vs Argentina Game is the Latest Example of Scandals in World Cup Qualifiers

The match between Brazil and Argentina is always special and attracts lots of attention all around the world. But what happened last weekend in their latest game is really extraordinary. As the two teams had been playing only for four minutes when officials from the Brazilian health authorities stormed into the pitch. They wanted to deport four Argentine players who arrived from England. And should have gone into self-isolation following the country’s health regulations. The Argentine team including Lionel Messi refused to play without these four players and walked off the pitch.

The game was suspended and had to be rescheduled for a new date. Similar things have already happened in other scandals in World Cup qualifiers. But this latest one is a real shame for all football fans who wanted to watch their favorites in a top-level game. At the moment Brazil leads the South American qualifying group after winning all their seven games so far. Argentina is in second place 6 points behind and will host Bolivia in their next game. Online sportsbooks in Argentina predict an easy win with the odds of 1.096 for a home victory.

Scandals in Africa

An African World Cup qualifier had to be postponed yesterday, the match between Guinea and Morocco. Due to an attempted coup that took part in the capital of Guinea, Conakry. According to the latest news, the Moroccan football team had to be escorted out of the city after gunshots were fired. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon that violence breaks out in African countries affecting football games as well.

Just like disorganization and manipulation of team managers and match officials. The latter happened in a 2018 World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal. During the match the referee, Joseph Lamptey awarded a penalty for the home team due to a Senegal handball. With his assistance, South Africa won the game 2-1. But the replays showed that the ball actually hit the defender’s knee instead of his hands. Quite a big mistake which meant the end of Lamptey’s career, while FIFA ordered the replay of the match. Where eventually Senegal won 2-0 and qualified for the World Cup.

Bribery Scandal in Guatemala

Several scandals rocked FIFA in the last few years as we already mentioned in our previous article. One of them involved the general secretary of Guatemala’s football organization, Hector Trujillo. The FIFA official took bribes for selling the media rights of the World Cup qualifying games to an American company. Trujillo was sentenced to eight months in prison in 2018. FIFA also banned him for life from taking part in any football-related activities. The chief of the Guatemalan football federation, Brayan Jimenez was also convicted of the same charges and spent months under home detention.

Regarding the actual national football team, Guatemala was suspended by FIFA in 2016. They lift the ban in 2018 so the team could play in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. But they couldn’t advance to the second round after finishing second in their group. The remaining eight teams in the CONCACAF zone will meet this Wednesday with the USA visiting Honduras. Online gambling sites in Argentina favor the guests to take the win despite drawing their previous two games.

Henry’s Hand and Other European Scandals

Back in Europe, we can also discover some unfortunate moments happening in World Cup qualifiers. In 2010 the captain of the French team, Thierry Henry handled the ball twice before passing to William Gallas. Who then scored the winner against Ireland. It all happened in the extra time of the play-off between the two teams and decided the tie in the French team’s favor. Irish fans and players were fuming. They asked for the replay of the match but FIFA dismissed their request.

The latest scandal in Europe happened in Hungary vs England game last week. First fans booed the English players who took the knee at the start of the game. During the match, some players were also racially abused. While fans also threw plastic cups at the players during their goal celebration. It wasn’t the first time that some of the Hungarian fans couldn’t behave themselves. UEFA banned fans from their next two games due to similar incidents at the Euro2020 matches. While the English team has also suffered boos and racist abuse in previous Euro2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Montenegro. Then the referee had to stop the game twice following the fans’ behavior.

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