World Cup stunning moments: West Germany 1-0 Austria in 1982 | Rob Smyth

Mar 20, 2018

Algeria fans shouted ‘fix’ as West Germany and Austria played out a mutually suitable scoreline in 1982’s ‘Disgrace of Gijón’

You have to pity the youth of today. They were born to banter, they think it’s normal behaviour to tell complete strangers on the internet what they have had for their tea. And worst of all, they have never experienced proper World Cup villainy. There was Luis Suárez’s handball in 2010, yes, but that was a fleeting moment from an individual rather than an extended body of work shared between a whole squad. The World Cup – which is about great stories as much as great football – is so much richer when a team leaves the rest of the football world raging with impotent frustration.

That has not occurred since 1990, when Argentina found umpteen different ways to prod the football world in the chest, most notably when they defiled Italy’s dreams on an operatic night in Naples. Four years earlier there were Uruguay, as close to a gathering of sociopaths as has been seen at the World Cup. The Scottish FA chief Ernie Walker called them “the scum of world football”.

Tags: Austria Football Germany Sport World Cup