Controversy, Sports Unwanted Friend

Controversy and Sport have gone hand in hand ever since the the first caveman accused the other caveman of spoiling his hunt.  Today the current controversy Luis Suarez struck again, as a clear handball preceded his scoring of Liverpool's crucial second goal but this time to my eyes he didn't do it deliberately.  He hasn't anticipated the ball coming to him, it hits his hand and he puts the ball away full expecting to here the whistle but he doesn't so he goes and celebrates to his teams fans by kissing his hand.

This is where Luis shows that he takes his love of Toby young and Simon Pegg to heart and shows the world how to 'Lose Friends & Alienate People'.  It is not what he does that that sparks most of the controversy, it is the way he behaves afterwards that causes most peoples dislike of him.  Suarez still is one off the best strikers in the world and if he keeps this up he will not be remembered for his skill, but compared to some people in sport Suarez is basically a saint.

Here a my top 5 sporting scandals/controversies.

5. Holyfield–Tyson II


On the eve of the fight in June 1997 many might of agreed that Tyson was still reeling from his defeat in the first fight where he was floored for only the second time in career in the sixth round and lost to a TKO  in round 11 but not many them wold of predicted what was about to happen in this match.

After the first round being won by Holyfield, in the second round he ducked under a right from Tyson, in doing so, head butting Tyson and opening a large cut over his right eye.  Tyson began the third round with a furious attack and with forty seconds remaining in the round Tyson bit Holyfield on his right ear, removing a one-inch piece of cartilage from the top of the ear, and spitting out the piece of ear on the ring floor.

The Referee nearly disqualified Tyson but the ringside doctor said Holyfield could continue so he deducted Tyson two points instead. During another clinch, Tyson bit Holyfield's left ear. The ref did not stop the fight this time, so the two men continued fighting until time expired. The men walked back to their respective corners when the fight was then stopped.

Announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. read the decision: "Referee Mills Lane has disqualified Mike Tyson for biting Evander Holyfield on both of his ears." Tyson was suspended and his license withheld, it took till 2009 and Oprah to get Tyson to apologise.

4. 1972 Olympic Men's Basketball Final


The 1972 Olympic men's basketball final was one of the most controversial in Olympic history and was the first ever loss for Team USA since the sport began Olympic play in 1936. The United States team won the previous seven gold medals and was favored to win another in Munich at the 1972 Summer Olympics. The team convincingly won its first eight games of the tournament putting its overall Olympic record at 63–0 and setting up a final against the Soviet Union.

The USA Olympic Basketball team battled for the gold medal for the last few seconds against the team from the Soviet Union. With three seconds left and the US team leading the Soviets by one point, a Soviet attempt to run an inbounds play was aborted when their coaching staff interrupted game officials to argue that the team was due a timeout.

Another play was run, which failed to score and sent the U.S. team into jubilant celebration over their apparent victory. But the play was ruled invalid because the game clock had not been properly reset when the ball was inbounded. The clock was reset and a third play was run, on which the USSR scored a layup to win, 51-50. Infuriated by the actions of the officials, the U.S. team refused to accept the silver medals


3. 2002 Winter Olympics Figure Skating

Most controversies change the images of the people involved but some change the rules of the sport.  In the figure skating pairs competition, the Russian pair had won the short program over the Canadians. In the free skate, the Russian made a single minor yet obvious technical error and the Canadians skated a flawless program, albeit one that many experts considered to be of much lesser difficulty than that of the Russians.

The Final standings are made up of both the short and the free program marks and when the results came out that the Russians had won there was outrage in the arena and in the American and Canadian camps. Four of the judges has put the Canadians top but the other five had the Russians on Top and after the immediate suspicion of cheating the spot light feel on the french judge who said that she had been pressured by the head of the French skating organization, she retracted that statement but the damage had already been done.

A few days later the Canadians had their silver medal upgraded to a gold and the Russians were to keep their gold medal as well and for the first time in history, the awarding ceremony was repeated, which the Russians accepted to attend. The Chinese pair, who came third, declined to attend the ceremony, considering it as farce.

A few months later they introduced secret judging, while the ISU has claimed this secrecy frees judges from pressure from their federations, critics pointed out that instead of preventing judges from cheating, secrecy only prevented the public and media from being able to identify cheating.

2. West Germany v Austria (1982 FIFA World Cup)


The match was the last game of the first-round Group 2, with Algeria and Chile having played the day before. With the outcome of that match already decided, a win by one or two goals for West Germany would result in both them and Austria qualifying at the expense of Algeria, which had beaten West Germany in the first game. After 10 minutes, West Germany took the lead. Thereafter, neither team scored, and few scoring chances were created.

Onlookers noted that both teams played as though they were content with the result, giving the impression of them having an unspoken agreement to play for a 1–0 German win. In the second group stage of the previous World Cup in 1978, the Austrians, despite having already been eliminated, had made great efforts to beat West Germany 3–2 in a match known as the Miracle of Cordoba, which deprived the Germans of a berth in the Third Place match.

The two teams were considered to be fierce rivals. However, as the 1982 match did not live up to these expectations and was widely perceived to be fixed, many observers were strongly critical of the teams' performances.  The Algerian football officials were furious and lodged an official protest. However no rules were technically broken as a result of the match, so FIFA declined to take any action or investigation and the outcome was allowed to stand. Both teams denied any collusion during the match

Many think due to this match, although it was never officially said, that all final group games are played at the same time to avoid teams prospect of working together to collude another team out of the tournament.


1.  The Spanish Intellectual Disability Basketball Team

This is top for me just because of I would love to have listened to the conversation that lead up to this happening. The 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, which had already seen controversy with numerous positive drug tests, would be the venue for one of the most scandalous/funniest (depending on your sense of humour) events in sport's history. Spain won the intellectual disability basketball gold medal but shortly after the Games closed after Carlos Ribagorda, a member of the victorious team and an undercover journalist, revealed to a Spanish magazine that most of his colleagues had not undergone medical tests to ensure that they had a disability.

After it was confirmed that 10 of the 12 competitors in the winning team were not disabled, the president of the Spanish Federation for Mentally Handicapped Sports, publicly apologised for the error and accepted total responsibility, resigning just before the findings were officially released.  Two weeks later the team was officially disqualified and was ordered to return the gold medals.