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| June 11, 2002 | Tuesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1423 |
Kick-off rule eliminates contrived results of past
INCHON (South Korea), June 10: When the four teams in group A start their final first-round matches Tuesday they will be playing under the simultaneous kick-off rule introduced in 1986 after a shady history of contrived World Cup results.
Champions France, Senegal, who beat them in the opening game of the tournament, Denmark and Uruguay are all still in the running for first or second spot and a ticket to the second round.
But as Algeria found to their cost 20 years ago at the World Cup in Spain, what happens in one game can have a big impact on the other. Back then the advantage of knowing in advance what had to be achieved, or avoided, was the key to qualifying strategy.
In one of the most notorious matches in World Cup history, West Germany and Austria contrived a result that sent both teams through at Algeria’s expense in 1982.
Algeria had caused a major upset by beating West Germany 2-1 in their opening game, before losing 2-0 to Austria in their second.
All three sides beat Chile and with two points for a win in those days, it left Algeria and Austria on four and the Germans on two with the game against their neighbours to come in Gijon.
Michel Hidalgo, coach of France in 1982, suggested both West Germany and Austria should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.
The incident caused so much anger because the players made absolutely no attempt to disguise their intentions but, although it was a rare example of both teams benefiting by a contrived result, it was by no means the first example in the World Cup.
Four years earlier, host nation Argentina went into their final game of what was then the second group stage needing to beat Peru by four goals to pip Brazil for a place in the final.
They duly pulled off a 6-0 victory before going on to beat the Netherlands in the final.
Several years after the match, the British Sunday Times newspaper published an investigation alleging that Argentina’s ruling military government had promised millions of dollars worth of aid to Peru in return for the right result.
The Peruvians, who had an Argentina-born goalkeeper and who made several changes to their team for the match, have always denied any collusion.
West Germany were also under the spotlight in 1974 when, after wins over Chile and Australia, they seemed set to top their first round group.
In the final game, they somehow contrived to lose 1-0 to East Germany in the divided countries’ only ever meeting and finished second in their group.
East Germany’s ‘reward’ for the shock victory was a second round group containing Brazil, Argentina and the Netherlands. West Germany eased past Yugoslavia, Poland and Sweden before beating the Dutch in the final.
The West Germans used a similar tactic in 1954, when they managed to lose their final group match against Hungary 8-3, thereby avoiding Brazil in the quarter-finals. Two weeks later they beat the Hungarians 3-2 in the final.—Reuters
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