5 instances of bad refereeing influencing the outcome of a game

#4 Spain vs. South Korea, World Cup 2002

The refereeing performance in the 2002 World Cup quarter-final between Spain and hosts South Korea was so bad that immediately after the game, cries of “fix” were heard from fans all around the world. South Korea won the tie after a penalty shoot-out, but there’s simply no way that the game should’ve gotten to that stage, to begin with.

Goals from Ivan Helguera – in normal time – and then Fernando Morientes in ‘Golden Goal’ extra time were both incorrectly chalked off by the referee, with the Morientes decision being the most bizarre. Helguera’s was disallowed due to apparent shirt-pulling in the box – debatable at best – but Morientes’s effort was denied as the referee claimed the ball had gone out of play before Joaquin’s cross.

It hadn’t, of course, but without the use of video replays, the referee’s errant call stood. Spain failed to get the crucial goal – and if they had, perhaps the referee would’ve simply disallowed it anyway! In the end, they would have to wait another eight years for a World Cup triumph, and the result remains one of the all-time controversial ones in World Cup history.