Worst Refereeing Decision In History

[Andy_Faber]

Now that referees are getting video assistance, surely the number of gaffs will decrease, but there have been some howlers in the past.

The earliest I recall actually seeing was coincidentally in a world cup finals, in the USSR v. El Salvador group game. USSR defender lamped the ball out of play for a clear ES throw in, but the quick witted Soviet then collected the ball and threw it in himself, to one of his own side, who ran through and scored with the referee gleefully waving the play forward. As Boney M once said: 'Oh, Those Russians'... The poor old El Salvadorians went to war with Honduras as a result of qualifying, so I guess incompetent refs weren't top of their hate list. Not currently available online, the youtube record of this has disappeared

Through Ram-tinted spectacles there is the 1976 FA Cup semi, which I've written before was the turning point in Derby's fortunes, wherein (for those younger and/or less bitter than I) Jack Taylor gave Nish offside for playing the ball over the Man U defence TO HIMSELF before netting the ball.

Another one from that era, which possibly cost Leeds Utd TWO Championships was the 'Tinkler Incident' when West Brom were awarded a goal despite Colin Suggett and Geoff Astle being clearly offside (20 yards or so in Sugget's case) at different stage of the build up to WBA's first goal. The aftermath is a good example of what nasty pieces of work the then Leeds team were, albeit on this occasion they were 100% justified in their protests IMO!

Anyone got any other howlers to brighten up our wait for the Belgium game?....

Oh yes, another one, feb 1973 Spurs v Man City, our friend Frannie Lee scores in 'hand of god' style but less subtle, punching the ball into the spurs goal and looking damned sheepish as the ref gave the goal and the Spurs defence went ballistic. Currently on youtube in lo res colour, I recall it in hi res black and white both on TV and all over the papers the next day

[ramAnag]

Now that referees are getting video assistance, surely the number of gaffs will decrease, but there have been some howlers in the past.

The earliest I recall actually seeing was coincidentally in a world cup finals, in the USSR v. El Salvador group game. USSR defender lamped the ball out of play for a clear ES throw in, but the quick witted Soviet then collected the ball and threw it in himself, to one of his own side, who ran through and scored with the referee gleefully waving the play forward. As Boney M once said: 'Oh, Those Russians'... The poor old El Salvadorians went to war with Honduras as a result of qualifying, so I guess incompetent refs weren't top of their hate list. Not currently available online, the youtube record of this has disappeared

Through Ram-tinted spectacles there is the 1976 FA Cup semi, which I've written before was the turning point in Derby's fortunes, wherein (for those younger and/or less bitter than I) Jack Taylor gave Nish offside for playing the ball over the Man U defence TO HIMSELF before netting the ball.

Another one from that era, which possibly cost Leeds Utd TWO Championships was the 'Tinkler Incident' when West Brom were awarded a goal despite Colin Suggett and Geoff Astle being clearly offside (20 yards or so in Sugget's case) at different stage of the build up to WBA's first goal. The aftermath is a good example of what nasty pieces of work the then Leeds team were, albeit on this occasion they were 100% justified in their protests IMO!

Anyone got any other howlers to brighten up our wait for the Belgium game?....

The Tinkler one was as bad/good as it gets. Terrible, terrible decision with huge consequences, but...because it was Leeds, it still makes me laugh.
Giving Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ goal was pretty bad...but that one’s never made me laugh!

[Geoff Parkstone]

Probably the worst decision that I have encountered was on 30 July 1966 made by Gottfried Dienst in allowing the 5th goal of the game and thus gifting the world cup to the hosts. Granted the linesman was equally culpable but the ref has to carry the can as that is his job. This merely added to a terrible day for the ref who had equally wrongly allowed the 4th goal of the game to stand as well when it should not have. Two howlers in the same game, and one of such importance too.

[Ram59]

Two that still bug me are the famous Atwell disallowing 2 goals at the end of a forest game and the 3 minutes of injury time against blues which lasted 7 minutes allowing the ref to give them a penalty and a free kick leading to an offside goal and robbing us of a comfortable 2 nil victory.

[ramAnag]

Two that still bug me are the famous Atwell disallowing 2 goals at the end of a forest game and the 3 minutes of injury time against blues which lasted 7 minutes allowing the ref to give them a penalty and a free kick leading to an offside goal and robbing us of a comfortable 2 nil victory.

Ah yes...the infamous Attwell...how different the careers of Jewell and Addison might have been without him.
Good call Ram...didn’t he also give Reading a goal once that no one else saw?
I once saw Oldham Athletic have a goal disallowed against Man. Utd. With Stepney groping thin air the ball hit the stanchion in the back corner of the net and bounced out. Inexplicably the referee said it hadn’t crossed the line!

[Romanis]

That English referee of ours who have the same player 3 cards takes some beating too. He was supposedly our top referee and did Prem games each week.

I think Clive 'the book' Thomas also had a major boo-boo. In WC 78, he gave a team a corner in injury time, as the ball was connected and goal bound, he blew the final whistle.
I didn't actually see this but this was taught in our referee class about waiting for the ball to complete its trajectory before blowing for HT/FT

[i961pie]

What about the 'non goal' that Spurs scored against Utd when Carroll dropped the ball a yard over the line but it was not given.

[MadAmster]

Probably the worst decision that I have encountered was on 30 July 1966 made by Gottfried Dienst in allowing the 5th goal of the game and thus gifting the world cup to the hosts. Granted the linesman was equally culpable but the ref has to carry the can as that is his job. This merely added to a terrible day for the ref who had equally wrongly allowed the 4th goal of the game to stand as well when it should not have. Two howlers in the same game, and one of such importance too.

Same linesman involved in both Geoff.....

If the first error hadn't been made the 2nd wouldn't have even happened. In either case, England won the World Cup Whether that was 2-1 after 90 minutes or 4-2 after extra time is irrelevant apart from robbing Geoff Hurst of a World Cup Final hat-trick.

[Andy_Faber]

I think Clive 'the book' Thomas also had a major boo-boo. In WC 78, he gave a team a corner in injury time, as the ball was connected and goal bound, he blew the final whistle.

I think our resident official MA will confirm that that is the CORRECT way to do things, blow the whistle when you think time's up, not when a passage of play has finished. It happened during a Derby match back in the seventies, I think at home v. Man City, the ref blew for full time as the ball was travelling into the Derby net for a 2-2 equalising city goal. The result stayed 2-1 and unusually for the time the referee provided a clarification that he hadn't 'disallowed' a goal because the game was over when the ball crossed the line so there was no goal to disallow

I've also seen a penalty 'goal' disallowed because the kick was taken after the expiry of time, the rule (at the time) was that a penalty could only be scored if it crossed the goal line WITHOUT touching anything else such as the goalkeeper or the woodwork, and the penalty went in of a post. No goal.

[Ram59]

I can remember another non goal. At the BBG in the mid seventies against a newly promoted Aston Villa, I was standing on the popside. Villa broke away, yards offside, drew our keeper and rolled it just inside the far post at the Normanton End. Astonishingly, the net wasn't properly fixed to the post and ground and the ball carried on rolling through the net and behind the goal.I was directly behind the shot and saw that it was inside the post.

The Villa player celebrated, but the ref gave a goal kick. When Villa protested, the ref inspected the net and found out to be loose, but still didn't give the goal. Justice was done in the end, because he was miles offside.