5 Terrible Refereeing Decisions That Changed World Cup Games 

2. Edgardo Codesal: Argentina v West Germany, 1990

If Argentina were the beneficiaries of a refereeing blunder in 86 then karma balances itself right out only 4 years later when, in the world cup final itself, they were the victims of some… let’s just say gamesmanship.

For our younger viewers so don’t really know anything about football before the Premier League started, Jurgen Kilinsmann’s famous Klinsmann dive celebration was a cheeky reference to the fact that he did a massive dive in the world’s biggest game.

Playing a 1-2 with Lothar Matthaus, Jurgen spied Argentina’s Pedro Monzon charging in for a tackle that he was never going to win. As the challenge came he kept into the air, triple pike, hit the deck, rolled around 3 full times, and even did that weird breakdance shoulder elevation thing for good measure.

Referee Edgardo Codesal, presumably seeing this carnage and thinking “f*** me, he’s killed him”, quickly brandished the red card. Only problem one, there was precisely zero contact.

Worse still, after the 10 men understandably tried to then pull the shutters down and play for penalties, the referee awarded Germany a penalty 5 minutes from time that was softer than your new step-dad’s telling off voice.

Just goes to show, what goes around… rolls around, 3 times, and gets one of your defenders sent off.