Football has experienced many controversies in its history. In 1982, this match created a scandal.
The history of football and major international competitions is punctuated by moments of injustice and scandals that have left their mark on spectators. We remember in particular Diego Maradona’s “hand of God” or the famous “Calciopoli” affair, a gigantic system around Italian football clubs and Serie A referees, which led to the administrative relegation of Juventus of Turin in Serie B.
In France, we especially remember the OM-Valenciennes affair. In 1993, a few days before the Champions League final won against AC Milan, players from the northern team announced live that they had been approached to voluntarily lose against Olympique de Marseille and ensure the Phocaeans the title. champion of France. Suspended from European competitions in the summer of 1993, the Marseille club was finally stripped of its French championship title and demoted to Ligue 2. Its president, Bernard Tapie, was for his part sentenced to two years in prison in this affair. , including eight months closed.
Yet another scandal has taken place, this time at a football World Cup, but completely legally and without consequences for its many perpetrators. Because in this story all the players present on the field are implicated. The year is 1982. In the last match of the group stage between Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany, the Germans need a victory to qualify while Austria is already assured of finishing first in the group. So, when the FRG opens the score in the 11th minute, both teams stop playing in a way.
From then on, the players’ pressure stopped abruptly, the match transformed into an endless succession of passes, at a moderate pace, without any offensive or the slightest notable acceleration. The German and Austrian goalkeepers, for their part, would not see the ball again until the final whistle. “We just wanted to qualify, not play football,” German coach Jupp Derwall would explain much later.
While the German commentator refuses to comment on this mock World Cup match that he sees and observers cry scandal, one team is paying the price for this arrangement: Algeria. Indeed, the African team could still qualify in the event of an Austrian victory.
Following this episode which marked the football world during this 1982 edition of the World Cup, FIFA decided to play the third and final matches of each group simultaneously, in order to avoid calculations like during this FRG-Austria.