Stanley Matthews was given the official title of «King of Football» by a Ghanaian tribe in 1957. The jet-heeled winger who played for Blackpool and England was later also knighted in his own country.
England player Kevin Keegan was beaten by airport customs men for sitting on a luggage carousel at Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia. After his release, sporting a bloodied nose, he proceeded to get his revenge by scoring for England.
When a team are 6-1 down, players need to pull together and summon up the fighting spirit. That is sort of what Bradford City’s Stuart McCall and Andy Myers did in 2001 when the supposed team-mates came to blows during the Bantams’ thrashing at the hands of Leeds United. Bradford captain McCall had to have stitches in a facial wound after Myers struck him just before half-time, then the smaller McCall seemed to aim a headbutt at the central defender, but fortunately it missed.
Millions of internet hits were recorded on a video of an American woman’s violent rampage during a match in New Mexico. Elizabeth Lambert, 20, was playing for the University of New Mexico against Brigham Young University in the 2009 semi-finals of the Mountain West Conference when she was caught on camera punching one player in the back, pulling another to the ground by her hair and kicking out at several others. Lambert later apologised saying: «I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation. I take full responsibility.» However, Lambert also attracted a number of admirers, with a Facebook group called «Go Elizabeth Lambert» claiming over 3,000 fans.
Walter Zenga dashed to the touchline to kiss his girlfriend in celebration when his Major League Soccer side New England Revolution scored in 1997. He was still dashing back when the opposition kicked off and aimed a shot from 55 yards towards Zenga’s net. He didn’t make it but neither did the shot.
Italian club Juventus played the first six years of their existence in a nice feminine pink. It was only in 1903, when the pink faded, that the Bianconeri adopted the now-famous black and white vertical stripes based on England’s Notts County club.
Paraguyan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert became the first goalkeeper to score a hat-trick. The seasoned penalty taker scored three times from the spot as his Argentinian league side Velez Sarsfield won 6-1 in 1999.
The lranian Football Federation (FFI) clashed with fans in 2009 over the possible banning of one of the country’s top TV football programmes – and lost a ballot by text message. Adel Ferdosipour, the country’s most famous football commentator and presenter of the programme Navad (90), faced being blacked out because of his on-air criticism of the federation’s efficiency. Ferdosipour even dared to conduct a text survey of viewers asking whether people were in favour of or against the programme and won a 97 per cent vote in favour. More than two million people sent messages. FFI is affiliated to the government sports organisation and run by a deputy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Civil war broke out amid the Newcastle United ranks during a 2005 Premiership match against Aston Villa. After Villa went 3-0 up, tempers flared between midfielders Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer and they started punching each other. The warring duo were not separated by their own team-mates but by opposition player Gareth Barry. Bowyer’s shirt was ripped in the fracas and both were sent off. The warring pair later sheepishly appeared at a press conference to say how much they regretted their punch-up.
Brazilian porn star Pamela Butt was furious when a sex video of her and CSKA Moscow’s Vagner Love was leaked on the internet. She said: «l’m very well paid to have sex on camera but I earned nothing for this.»
The installation of a giant concrete ball made for a stadium to be used in the 2010 World Cup finals seemed jinxed. The ball was airlifted to the Johannesburg stadium by helicopter in 2009 and was just about to be lowered on to the mountings above the main entrance when engineers discovered the brackets were wrongly placed. It was decided to return the concrete monstrosity to the workshops by truck but journey planners failed to take a low bridge into account. It smashed the bridge to the ground, causing traffic chaos.
