5 Terrible Refereeing Decisions That Changed World Cup Games 

3. The Hand of God

Now, full disclosure here, as a member of the Goalkeepers Union I do not attach any blame whatsoever to the referee for Maradona’s infamous Hand of God. The guy was pretty far away, it all happened in a flash, and he missed it. These things happen.

What shouldn’t ever happen though, is a 6ft 2’ goalkeeper getting out jumped to a ball by a 5ft 5’ centre forward. Shilton’s nearly got a foot on him, the ball was coming out of the sky towards him, and Maradona someone steals in for the slam-dunk.

That said though, yes I suppose that is cheating and given this game was a knockout which finished 2-1, you do have to throw some blame at the referee Ali Bin Nasser of Tunisia. I mean, Maradonna literally refers to him as “my eternal friend” so, yeah, maybe it is on him.

Argentina, of course, went on to win the World Cup itself after this match while England went home to fume on being cheated out of a semi-final spot. There is an argument - quite wild one, admittedly - that this singular sporting moment did more to damage Anglo/Argentine relations than the actual Falklands War.

Sport; it’s serious business.