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As much as football fans love thrilling action on the pitch, off-field incidents can be just as entertaining. From Jose Mourinho sneaking into the dressing room in a laundry basket to Mario Balotelli's impromptu decision to set off fireworks in the bathroom of his mansion, there have been surprising incidents galore.
Nonetheless, it seems 2021 was an especially eventful year, even by football's chaotic standards. Health officials sensationally interrupted a Brazil vs Argentina game to enforce immediate quarantine, while fans in France continued to get matches suspended at will. That wasn't even the tip of the iceberg.
Football was hit by a series of ugly incidents in 2021
Not all off-field incidents, though, were humorous and good-natured. Many of the problems that have plagued the beautiful game in the past still persist, while new issues continue to come up.
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That was epitomised by an eventful Euro 2020. The event ended on a terrible note after a penalty shootout considerably more sombre than Diana Ross' infamous effort in 1994.
Nevertheless, here are the six shocking scandals that hit football in 2021:
#6 Florentino Perez blasts Real Madrid legends in leaked audio tapes
One could forgive Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo for expecting Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to be grateful for their contributions to the club. After all, the duo powered Los Blancos to a stunning 2011-12 La Liga win over Pep Guardiola's legendary Barcelona, one of the greatest club teams in history.
Instead of offering warm applause, Perez labelled Mourinho and Ronaldo 'idiots' and 'abnormal' in a series of leaked audio clips released by El Confidencial. The leaks, which surfaced in July this year, contained recordings from as far back as 2006. About Cristiano Ronaldo, Perez said:
“(Ronaldo) is crazy. The guy is an idiot; he’s sick. You think this guy is normal, but he’s not. If he was, he wouldn’t do all the things he does.”
The Real Madrid supremo's comments on the Portuguese superstar and Jose Mourinho in 2012 were:
“(Jorge) Mendes has no control over (Ronaldo), and it’s the same with Mourinho – none at all. These are two guys with terrible egos, spoilt the pair of them. They are both abnormal because we are talking about a lot of money in terms of image rights."
Even club legends Raul and Iker Casillas, who devoted most of their careers to Real Madrid, were not spared:
"Casillas is not a Real Madrid standard goalkeeper; what can I say? He’s not, and never has been. But, well, he is one of the big frauds of Madrid. The second is Raul. The two biggest frauds at Madrid are first Raul and then Casillas," Perez is alleged to have said in a recording from 2006.
#5 Police arrest former Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu after raiding Camp Nou
When Barcelona fans say they want to compete with Real Madrid, this probably isn't what they had in mind.
Despite Florentino Perez's blunder, Barcelona ex-president Josep Bartomeu went one step further and got himself arrested after plunging the club into a financial crisis. To exacerbate matters, the ex-president was found to have hired a social media firm to publicly attack the club's own players and staff.
With Barcelona drowning in debt worth over a billion euros, Catalan police raided Camp Nou in March earlier this year. The club's chief executive Oscar Grau and the head of legal services Roman Gomez Ponti were also taken into custody.
The financial scandal had awful consequences, as Barcelona soon lost talisman Lionel Messi as a result. The club could not offer him a new contract without falling foul of La Liga's financial fair play rules.
New president Laporta claimed the club had losses of €481 million and was left with a negative net worth of €451 million. That made it difficult to renegotiate contracts with the players. He told a press conference in this regard:
“Our salaries represent 103% of the club’s total income. That’s 20% to 25% more than our competitors. We have found ourselves in a difficult situation to renegotiate the players’ contracts.”
It was a sad fall for a club that was once considered to be among the best-run organisations in world football.
#4 Case against Cristiano Ronaldo comes to a close
While enjoying remarkable success on the field, Cristiano Ronaldo has had a few run-ins with the law over the years. Between 2018 and 2020, in particular, the Portuguese superstar battled allegations of tax evasion as well as an infamous sexual assault accusation from 2009.
However, it looks like Ronaldo's legal troubles are finally over. A Nevada judge recommended the dismissal of Kathryn Mayorga's case against the Manchester United man earlier this year.
The incident, which reportedly took place in Las Vegas, reached prominence in October 2018 when Mayorga sued Ronaldo. Her attorney said:
"She (Kathryn Mayorga) explained that since the 2009 sexual assault, she had experienced depression, intrusive thoughts, considered suicide, abused alcohol and difficulty maintaining personal relationships and employment.
Although Ronaldo emphatically denied the claims, documents showed the duo had previously agreed to a financial settlement outside of court. That suggested there was more to the matter than most people thought.
“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense," read Ronaldo's statement.
In 2019, prosecutors said Ronaldo would not face any criminal charges. Now, with a magistrate recommending the dismissal of Mayorga's case, it seems the matter is finally drawing to a close.
#3 Kheira Hamraoui and the PSG disaster
Undoubtedly the strangest football story of the year was a peculiar problem that emerged at Paris Saint-Germain. Talented French midfielder Kheira Hamraoui's dream move from Barcelona to Paris soon turned into a nightmare.
PSG teammates Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo were reportedly returning from training when their car was accosted by two men in black masks. The duo assaulted Hamraoui with an iron bat, while her teammate was completely ignored. In a shocking turn of events, Diallo was brought in by French police, as unverified reports accused her of arranging the attack on her teammate.
However, Diallo was found to be innocent, and was cleared by the police. But the drama was not over. Barcelona legend and executive Eric Abidal was soon named as a person of interest when it surfaced that he had been involved in an affair with Hamraoui back in Spain.
The case is still ongoing, and there is a significant amount of unverified information in circulation. The spotlight is now on Eric Abidal's wife, who has already filed for divorce after the affair came to light.
This one isn't over by any means, but it already feels like something straight out of a surreal soap opera.
#2 Racism rears its ugly head once again
Racism has long plagued football, and despite all the talk about making a change, 2021 was no different.
There have been numerous high-profile incidents: a linesman reportedly directed a racist remark towards a player during a PSG-Basaksehir Champions League game. Meanwhile, isolated incidents of racist chants by fans in French and Italian football continued to make news.
Things came to a boil when Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Raheem Sterling faced a barrage of racist abuse on social media after England's defeat in the Euro 2020 final. The trio missed their spot-kicks against Italy in the final shootout. Five people were subsequently arrested, and one fan was reportedly even jailed.
The above incidents show that even in 2021, racism in football sadly continues to fester on the pitch, in the stands or on the internet.
#1 The European Super League
Covering the entire European Super League (ESL) controversy would require an entire conversation of its own. But in simple terms, it was probably the biggest story football had seen in over a decade. Nothing has brought fans from across the world together like the backlash against the proposed ESL did.
On April 18 this year, 12 clubs - England's 'Big Six', Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, and Italian heavyweights Juventus - announced their intention to break free of UEFA. The Union of European Football Associations is the primary governing body for football in Europe, and hosts the Champions League.
The 12 teams stated their intention to establish a new tournament, and thereby increase their own revenue and boost their finances. UEFA and FIFA moved quickly to shut it down, but true power was in the hands of the fans. Massive protests were held across Europe at short notice, and the backlash convinced the English clubs to drop the idea. Most of the other involved teams soon followed suit.
The fallout was historic. Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez were revealed to be the brains behind the ESL. Agnelli stepped down from his executive role at UEFA, and was soon forced to resign from his role at Juventus. Ed Woodward was forced out at Manchester United.
The ESL might have been a huge failure, but the sheer audacity of Europe's heavyweight teams has left a deep scar on the sport.
