Cameroon’s goalkeeping coach Thomas Nkono was beaten, handcuffed and detained before an Africa Cup of Nations match with Mali in 2003 because he was suspected of leaving a voodoo charm on the pitch.
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson has refused to talk to anyone from national broadcaster the BBC since the corporation showed a 2004 documentary questioning his professional relations1hip with football agent son Jason.
Swedish striker Tomas Brolin was trying in 2010 to increase his goal tally for his country – 12 years after retirement. He wanted credit for a shot by team-mate Roland Nilsson, which deflected off Brolin’s back into the net in a 2-1 win over Norway in 1991. Brolin, who played 47 times for his country, scoring 26 goals, said he had raised no objection to Nilsson getting the credit because he had never scored an international goal, but the defender then went on to score one more. Former Leeds, Parma and Crystal Palace striker Brolin applied to the Swedish FA to get the goal changed claiming in a TV interview that Nilsson «stole the goal».
Republic of lreland captain Roy Keane quit the squad during the 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup finals after a furious bust-up with coach Mick McCarthy. It was reported he was unhappy with the training facilities for the squad on the island of Saipan.
Strikes by players and a coach driver forced Chester City to cancel a game at Forest Green Rovers in England’s Blue Square Premier League in 2010. Several players of cash-strapped Chester had refused to travel because they hadn’t been paid, which meant the club, already rock bottom of the division with a 25-point deduction incurred for going into administration, were unable to raise a team of more than eight. The driver of the team coach also refused to move until the club paid the £675 for the journey in advance.
One of the more bizarre stoppages for a game was 1in 1979 when an elephant strolled into a Buckingham Town United Counties League match. The elephant’s appearance was behind the referee’s back and only the frantic waving of a goalkeeper alerted him to the intrusion. Minutes later two men appeared looking for an elephant that had gone walkabout from a travelling circus pitched nearby.
An injury gave Amy Fearn the chance to become the first woman to referee a first-class league match in England. In 2009 she took charge for the final 20 minutes of Coventry’s 1-0 home win over Nottingham Forest in the Coca-Cola Championship. Original referee Tony Bates had collapsed with a calf strain in the 71st minute and called assistant ref Fearn into action when he couldn’t continue after treatment. Wendy Toms was the first female official in the Football League when she started as a fourth official in the early 1990s. Although Toms officiated games in the Premier League as an assistant referee she wasn’t called upon to take over the whistle.
Paolo Di Canio refused to score when Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was injured attempting a clearance. West Ham’s Di Canio caught the ball and stopped the game. He won a FIFA Fair Play Award.
England captain John Terry apologised after leaving his Bentley in a disabled parking bay while he spent two hours over a meal at a restaurant near his Surrey home in 2008. He paid a £60 fine for the offence even though around the corner was a car park – charging 50p per hour.
A referee cut short a game – because he felt sorry for the losing team. Marc Gevaert blew for time after just 86 minutes of a boys’ league game in Belgium as FC Wijtschate trailed Vladslo 16-0. He revealed later that his fear was that the losing side was getting so collectively frustrated that someone might get sent off. After an hour Wijtschate were 11-0 down and some of their players begged the ref to end the slaughter. At 16-0 some Wijtschate players were so frustrated they started to kick the opposition and the ref feared serious injuries might occur.
Jurgen Klinsmann became a truly jet-age coach when he took over the German national team in 2004 – even though he lived in California, 6,000 miles from his homeland.
A century before similar evidence was available via video, movie cameras called a referee’s decision into question. In the days before nets were used, and with Tottenham Hotspur leading the 1901 FA Cup final against Sheffield United 2-1, a ball that dropped wide of the Spurs post was given as a goal by referee Arthur Kingscott. By chance this was the first cup final captured by movie cameras and newsreels, which showed United had been lucky to get a draw through the «goal that never was». Spurs won the replay 3-1.
