#4 Serbia vs Albania 14/10/2014
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Drones, flags, and violence outdid what was supposed to be a Euro 2016 qualifier between Serbia and Albania. It was tempting to think that Albania’s first visit to Belgrade since 1967 was going to finish without an incident. The Serbian team had dominated the slow-paced game and looked favourites to win the despite the game being at 0-0. But as half-time approached, that was soon going to change, within the next few seconds.
Martin Atkinson had already stopped play after a flare was thrown from the stands and had disrupted an Albanian corner and he had to do it again after another flare nearly hit a player.
But there was something else going on and it took a Serbian player to alert the English referee and Atkinson saw a small drone hovering about the pitch. The device was lowering a flag on to the pitch, which Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic caught and that was all it took for the atmosphere to change.
Within seconds, the defender was confronted by two Albanian players who attempted to retrieve the flag; chairs and other projectiles were thrown towards the players as members of each team’s support staff flooded the field, which further escalated the matter. The match was eventually called off and stadium security was criticised heavily after supporters managed to enter the field and chase after players.
#3 South Korea vs Italy 18/06/2002
When a football matches feature on three different lists for the most controversial football games of all time, you know that something went wrong. But while the South Korean team deserve credit for making it past the group stages, it was their knockout stages performance which embroiled them in controversy.
The Italians brought with them a world class squad to the 2002 World Cup, with the likes of Alessandro del Piero, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro and even Gianluigi Buffon all in their prime.
They finished second in the group and their reward was South Korea as their opponents for the last-16 stage. The Italian fans trembled – they had been knocked out by North Korea during the 1966 World Cup – that there was a slight chance that South Korea could produce what their neighbours once did. But could the Koreans really overcome what was touted to be Italy’s golden generation?
They did, thanks to a match full of bad decisions made by the referee, Byron Moreno. Against Guss Hiddink’s men, Italy again had a goal disallowed, a golden goal which would have taken them to next round. del Piero, Zambrotta, and Maldini were all subject to bookable offences by the Koreans but it all went unpunished; while Totti was sent off for diving.
Italy eventually lost, after Jung-Hwan’s golden goal winner, but both the match and Moreno have gone down in Italian footballing history. But South Korea’s problems were not over, as they faced Spain through further controversy, the Spaniards had two goals disallowed before the Koreans won the game 5-3 on penalties.
