Usually, the group stage matches of the FIFA World Cup are strategically placed to meet broadcast requirements across the world.
But, ardent football fans are aware of the fact that the FIFA World Cup sees the final group stage match for each group held at the same time. In this article, we take a look at the reason for the same and how the unfair plotting of two teams completely changed the fortune of the third team, in an incident now named the 'Disgrace of Gijon'.
What happened?
The final match of the (then) Group Two between West Germany and Austria during the 1982 edition is counted among the most controversial matches in the history of the mega event. Although the fact that the two teams had agreed on the result beforehand has never been proven, the way that the midfield of these two sides played left nothing much to say.
West Germany suffered an embarrassing 1-2 loss to Algeria in their first group game of that tournament and required a win to go through, while Austria only needed to prevent losing by four goals to join their European counterparts. After Horst Hrubesch put the Germans in front with a header in the 11th minute, both the teams decided to sit back and did not create any other chances between them.
Both teams progressed to the knockout stage of the mega event while the Algerians, who defeated Chile 3–2 in their final match, were knocked out. The match is famously known as the ‘Disgrace of Gijon.”
Effects of this game
As a result of this match, FIFA decided that from the World Cup 1986 onward, the final pair of group matches in World Cups always start at the same time. Almost 25 years after that World Cup in Spain, former German player Hans-Peter Briegel acknowledged that his team arranged a victory over Austria (1–0) in the first phase, which eliminated their African opponents.
In an interview for the newspaper 'Al Ittihad', from the United Arab Emirates, Briegel confirmed what everyone suspected since that June 25, 1982, at the El Molinón stadium. "Yes, I apologize for that," said the 51-year-old former Kaiserslautern defender.
