Perhaps the most famous of all handball controversies is Diego Maradona's basketball-style intervention at the 1986 World Cup. If Thierry Henry's handball against the Irish was the 'Hand of Frog', Maradona's was the 'Hand of God' when he cheated England out of a chance of winning the World Cup in Mexico. In the quarter-final stage of the competition, England were drawn against Argentina and the two nations clashed at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The game would be remembered for two Maradona incidents - one as blatant a handball as you will ever see and another a spectacular strike dubbed the 'goal of the century'. First came the controversy as England midfielder Steve Hodge saw his attempted clearance miscue into his own penalty area and up toward the rising Maradona, who competed with goalkeeper Peter Shilton for the loose ball before reaching up with the outside of his left hand and flapping into the back of the Three Lion's goal for 1-0. England were shocked and quickly blown away by another Maradona goal, hailed the greatest individual goal ever, before Gary Lineker bagged a consolation. The game may well have ended 1-1 at full-time had it not been for the handball, and we will perhaps never know how the tie may have panned out had it not been for a dubious deity.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
