🟥 VII · Villains & Red Cards
The headbutts, the bites, the stamps and the spits. Zidane's farewell, Suárez's teeth, Rijkaard's phlegm, the Battle of Santiago — the World Cup at its most savage.
Part of World Cup
11 moments in this segment.
- — The Battle of Santiago. Chile vs Italy 1962 is so violent — punches, a broken nose, police on the pitch — that commentator David Coleman called it "the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game."
- — Antonio RattÃn refuses to leave the pitch. Argentina captain Antonio RattÃn is sent off against England in 1966 and refuses to go for several minutes, sparking a diplomatic row; England manager Alf Ramsey later called the Argentines "animals".
- — Schumacher flattens Battiston. In the 1982 semi-final, German keeper Harald Schumacher charges out and smashes into Patrick Battiston, leaving the Frenchman unconscious with broken teeth — and is not even penalised. One of the most shocking fouls in World Cup history.
- — Rijkaard spits at Völler. In a fiery 1990 second-round tie, the Netherlands' Frank Rijkaard spits in the curly hair of West Germany's Rudi Völler — twice — and both are sent off in one of the World Cup's ugliest feuds.
- — Maradona's wild-eyed scream into the camera. Maradona sprinted to the touchline and screamed into a TV camera after scoring against Greece in 1994 — an image that turned sinister days later when he failed a drug test and was expelled from the tournament.
- — Beckham's kick and red card vs Argentina. David Beckham flicks a leg at Diego Simeone and is sent off in the 1998 second round; ten-man England lose on penalties and Beckham becomes a national hate figure overnight — before his long redemption.
- — Simeone's role in the Beckham red card. Diego Simeone went down theatrically after Beckham's flick in 1998, then admitted years later he'd encouraged the referee to act — gamesmanship that helped knock England out and entered World Cup folklore.
- — The words behind the headbutt. For years the world wondered what Marco Materazzi said to provoke Zidane in the 2006 final; the exchange became one of football's great unsolved mysteries, eventually addressed by both men.
- — Nigel de Jong's kung-fu kick in the final. In the 2010 final, Nigel de Jong plants his studs into Xabi Alonso's chest — a karate-style challenge that somehow drew only a yellow card, the symbol of a brutal Dutch approach in a notoriously dirty final.
- — Luis Suárez bites Chiellini. Luis Suárez sinks his teeth into Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder during a 2014 group match — his third on-pitch bite — and is banned for four months by FIFA. Uruguay's talisman becomes the tournament's pantomime villain.
- — Pepe's headbutt and red card vs Germany. Portugal's Pepe reacted to a Thomas Müller fall in 2014 by leaning in and headbutting him, earning a red card in a 4–0 thrashing — a moment of self-destruction in a chastening defeat.
