THE 10 FUNNIEST INCIDENTS IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL
I have put together what I consider the 10 funniest incidents in football. Please forgive me if my memory of some of the circumstances has escaped me.
In reverse order
10 - In early 1999 Ron Atkinson took over as manager of Nottingham Forest. His first match was at home against Arsenal. At the start of the match he walke out the tunnel and headed towards the dugout, but instead of going to the Forest dugout, he walked straight past it and sast down nimn the Arsenal dugout without bothering to look and see who else was there. The fans behind him started to point their fingers and say 'that way!', but he couldn't see or him them. After a minute or so he turned his head to the right and saw Dennis Bergkamp and thought "We haven't got him, have we?", and he realised.
9 - This concerns arguably the most talented but least intelligent midfield player in the world
NOT David Beckham
It's Luis Figo
In 1996 (or there about) he signed contracts with two different clubs in the same week, namely Parma and Juventus, obviously thinking that he could play for one team one week and the other the next.
He ended up joining neither club
8 - This incident comes from a match between Argentina and Cameroon from the World Cup in 1990. Cameroon are a goal up, but have had a man sent off and so are under pressure.
Claudio Cannigia has the ball and is running at the midfield. A late challenge comes in, the sort that would players like Stoichkov, Simeone, Bilic or Klinnsmann tumbling on the ground and writhing in agony.
Not Cannigia though, he rides and is still running. Another challenge comes in, a worse one!
But Cannigia manages to ride this one as well. The referee could have blown up here, but plays advantage.
Cannigia runs at the defense, Massing decides that the only way to stop him is to boot him out of the stadium.
SWING!!!!!!
THUMP!!!!!!!
No way past for Cannigia this time!
Cameroon were then reduced to 9 players.
7 - This comes from top vs. bottom clash in Serie A in 1996 between Juventus and Piacenza. With about ten minutes to go Juventus are awarded a dubious penalty, it's scored and the score is now 3-1 to Juventus. A minute later Piacenza are awarded a penalty. The Piacenza captain then runs straight up to the referee and it looks as though he's complaining about the decision. He's then sent off for dissent, presumably. I think it was a second yellow, but why was he complaining when his own team's been given a penalty?
Apparently, what he said to the referee was something like (in Italian)
"Are you trying to make up for your boo-boo at that end by making an even bigger one at this end?"
The penalty was scored, but Juventus still won the match.
6 - Paolo Di Canio was playing for Sheffield Wednesday in early 1998. A throw-in decision goes against him. He complains to the referee so vehemently that he gets booked. To be fair, it should have been a throw to Wednesday, but it was hardly in a dangerous situation and wasn't worth getting a booking over. But Di Canio's temperament lets him down sometimes, and he didn't stop complaining despite the booking. The ref did the only thing he could do, and send him off! The funniest thing about this incident is the expression on the referee's face on brandishing the red card ('what a stupid way to get yourself sent off' he was thinking).
5 - This comes from a match involving Coventry from about 5 years ago. A fairly weak shot is fired from about 30 yards. Steve Ogrizovic should be able to pick it up easily and gets into a crouching position. But one of the Coventry defenders decides to boot it downfield himself. OOPS! he mishits it. The balls span off his foot, went round the side of the crouching Ogrizovia, and into the goal. Very funny to watch.
4 - This comes a match involving Norwich City from 1995. They have two players with Grade 1 hairstyles. One of them is booked early on (I think his name was Johnsen). A bit later he commits another bad foul. The ref blows his whistle and reaches for his pocket. The guilty party knows what's going to happen and starts walking off the pitch. But the other player with the similar hairstyle happened to be standing near the incident and he is shown the red card instead, and he hadn't previously been booked. AS you'd expect, he was outraged , but no referee changes his decision.
3 - This would get many people's vote for number 1, but I think there was a bet involved somewhere. It comes from a match from the 1974 world up between Brazil and Zaire which Brazil won 3-0. Brazil have a direct free-kick. The referee blows his whistle and then straight away one of the players in the Zaire wall runs out and hits the ball down field. After being booked he gave a little bow to the supporters.
2 - Liverpool are playing Manchester United in 1990. Ronnie Whelan manages to find the top corner from 40 yards. The shot was so good that Bruce Grobelaar hardly moved!*
Despite that Liverpool still won the match and the league a few weeks later.
So what's number 1?
No doubt many simple-minded Spurs fans would choose Nayim's goal for Real Zaragoza from the 1995 cup-winners cup final. From that point of view I should choose Gary Mabbut's own goal in the 1987 FA cup final.
No. number 1 is another Liverpool goof from a match against Aston Villa in 1992. The score's 0-0, Ronnie Rosenthal has the ball at his feet and runs at the defence. He goes past one defender, and then another. He now has only the keeper to beat, he takes the ball past the keeper as well. The goal is now right in front of him and he is just 10 yards away from. There’s no defender anywhere near him and the keeper is on the ground. It's going to be a fantastic solo effort by the Israeli international.
He only has to pass the ball into the net.
He could even dribble it in.
But instead, just to make the goal look good, he decided to blast it in and make the net bulge.
He blasted it all right!
It hit the crossbar and it came back out.
Even in amateur football I don't think I've seen a worse miss than that one.
Villa unltimately won the match 5-2, I think.
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*If you haven't got it yet, both Ronnie Whelan and Bruse Grobelaar were playing for the same team (i.e. an own goal).