Football's 'Most Disgraceful Moment' of the Year

As the year 2011 cedes into history, we at Sportskeeda take a moment to reflect onto what was a truly incredible footballing year with Barcelona thumping all and sundry in the footballing sphere, Man Utd winning the record breaking 19th title before falling agonizingly short in the Champions League final while in Italy, Milan ended the era of dominance of bitter rivals Inter. Yet at times the highs were rendered insignificant, for 2011 would be a year remembered for the incredible troughs that put the football fraternity to shame. From the Andy Fray’s sexist remarks caught on air to Eboue being abused by the Besiktas fans, from the pitch invasion in Amsterdam to Luis Suarez‘ double moment of ignominy, 2011 saw it all and we felt it all.

Looking back at it, the year saw the darker side of some names while others dipped further down towards the ugly. This poll in specific is to recollect some of the most atrocious incidents in football, those who gave an affront to the most basic football values. Vote for that one moment that you think was the most despicable of the lot(read about the incidents below the poll).

Richard Keys and Andy Gray’s sexist remarks caught on air

One a popular television presenter, the other one of the world’s most renowned football commentators. But their fall from grace was just as quick as their rise was. The duo were caught on air making sexist statements about a female assistant referee Sian Massey have mistakenly believed that their microphones were switched off. Both of them were sacked by their employers Sky Sports as a direct fallout from the incident.

Luis Suarez making racist remarks on Patrice Evra

How much is too much Luis?

In what was a clash between two mighty rivals Man Utd and Liverpool, their first since United overshadowed their Merseyside rivals, much was expected in footballing terms. Yet, the only thing that remains from the game is the infamous racist rant from the Liverpool forward where he allegedly called Evra ‘negrito’. The fall out was obvious, a bitter battle broke out between the opposite set of fans and Suarez has since been charged and banned for eight games for his racist undertones.

The second coming, Luis Suarez with the middle finger gesture

And he's sunk. England's new villian?

As if the entire racism controversy wasn’t enough already, Suarez’ moral conduct in England plummeted to a new low as he showed his middle finger to a section of Fulham fans at Craven Cottage after his side lost 1-0 to Fulham. As his reputation sunk, his misery was compounded by a 1-match ban inflicted by the FA for the incident to go along with a monetary fine both for the player and his club.

Wayne Rooney kicks out at a Montenegro defender

Lost your cool again Roonster?

The Manchester United striker hugged all the limelight for all the wrong reasons during England’s crucial Euro-2012 qualifying clash with Montenegro as the temperamental forward kicked out at Montenegrin defender Miodrag Dzudovic who plucked the ball away from him during the game. The Englishman was instantaneously sent off by the referee and was later banned for three matches for his troubles, that has since been reduced on appeal by the English FA.

The refusal from Carlos Tevez

Carlitos says, I'm not playing!

Right at the time Man City looked set for domination in England and Europe, their captain Carlos Tevez refused to step onto the pitch on manager Roberto Mancini’s orders, for he wasn’t keen on playing after he was benched for the game. The darling of City fans had in that moment turned into a universal villian for them. Bayern went on to record a rather comfortable 2-0 win and City would be dumped out during the group stages of their maiden campaign in Europe’s elite club competition.

Besiktas fans throwing ‘missiles’ at Emmanuel Eboue

The former Arsenal man Emmanuel Eboue made a move to Istanbul giants Galatasaray during the summer but he wouldn’t have foreseen what would happen to him during the highly intense Istanbul derby. Sections of the Besiktas support continually hassled the Ivory Coast international because they thought that Eboue had been feigning injuries during the game. The Ivorian was met with rather despicable attitude by the rival fans in the ill-fated Istanbul derby.

The Heysel Reminder: Inter fans push the Derby d’Italia to a new low

Inter fans displaying the banner mocking Heysel.

The Heysel disaster of 1985 was one of the most unfortunate incidents in modern football wherein a section of Juventus fans were cornered by Liverpool fans who had breached the fences that divided the two sets of fans, the wall besides the cornered Juve fans crumbled and 39 Bianconeri fans were crushed to death and over 600 injured just an hour before Juventus lifting their first ever European Cup. This year after the inaugaration Juventus’ new stadium, the Derby d’Italia brought back the haunted memories of all those years ago as Inter fans unfurled a giant banner mocking the tragedy, the banner read “Acciaio scadente: nostalgia dell’Heysel.” that translates to “Poor quality iron – nostalgia for Heysel” in context of Juventus’ new stadium. Juventus though would go onto beat Inter 2-1 much to the disenchantment of the Inter ultras.

John Terry involved in a racist incident with Anton Ferdinand

Terry in a legal tangle over the incident

The England and Chelsea captain was involved in a nasty confrontation with QPR’s Anton Ferdinand during the local rivals’ league meeting at Loftus Road. Anton Ferdinand is ironically the brother of Terry’s longtime England defensive colleague Rio Ferdinand and the incident could have implications on the three lions as well. Both the clubs Chelsea and QPR have stuck to their guns and supported their players but Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service(CPS) have decided to press criminal charges against the England captain John Terry after receiving ‘additional’ evidence regarding the incident.

A fan attacks AZ Alkamaar’s Esteban Alvarade

The Dutch Cup game between Eredivisie contenders AZ and Ajax was marred with controversy, a fan broke away from the security guards at Ajax’s Amsterdam Arena on 36 minutes and aggressively moved in to kick Esteban but too bad for the fan, the Costa Rican was more than equal to it and he landed kicks onto the wild fan to knock him out cold. The referee compounded the disdain in AZ’s ranks shocked by the security lapse by showing a red card to the keeper. The AZ team walked away in protest of the referee and the ties was abondoned. The KNVB(Dutch FA) have since rescinded Esteban’s red card, fined Ajax for the fan troubles and the match has been rescheduled to January 9.

Mourinho’s sneaky eye poke on a Barca coach

He maybe the special one but he never shies away from controversies on the football pitch. In yet another edition of incident marred El Clasico, during a brawl that broke out after Marcelo’s tackle on Cesc Fabregas during the second leg of the Spanish Supercopa, Mourinho rather opportunistically poked into the eye of Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova. Surely not an incident one would like to see on a football field from the coach of a leading team.

River Plate fans riot post relegation

Riot Police try to control the damage within the stadium

River Plate are one of the biggest teams in Argentina and their fans are some of the most ardent and fierce species on Earth. The club’s relegation for the first time in their history coupled with bitter rivals Boca Juniors winning the title resulted in large scale rioting both inside the stadium and on the streets of Buenos Aires that disrupted the city. Hooligans pelted stones and metal bars that injured 25 people including six police men and a major shopping avenue nearby had it’s glasses broken and shops looted.

Cristiano Doni, his arrest and the betting/fixing mafia

Wondering of your wrongs now Doni?

Once an Italian international footballer, Doni took a massive fall from grace in 2011. Just as he was beginning the preperation for a new season with Atalanta, he was convicted and later banned for three and a half years for match fixing during the season. Later on he allegedly accepted his role in fixing games in the Serie B and as a final nail in his football coffin, he was arrested in late December as the investigation widened into the betting scam that affected results of football matches.

Turkish fixing Scandal

In the midst of a major scandal.

In 2011, not many sporting scandals can match the severity of the one that has affected Turkish football. The scam was brought to light when the Turkish police upped the ante to investigate the results and betting patterns of 19 Turkish league matches. Much of it revolves around Fenerbahce, a leading club in Turkey based in Istanbul, who were proclaimed guilty to TFF’s disciplinary code and were also debarred from this season’s Champions League. But Fenerbahce might only be the tip of the iceberg and several other club presidents and executives have since been questioned and we have surely not seen the last of it yet.