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There is a reason the World Cup now plays its final group-stage games simultaneously: West Germany, Austria and their infamous match at the 1982 World Cup.
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The final match of Group 2 that year featured Austria and West Germany. The other two countries in the group, Algeria and Chile, had played their third and final match the day before, which allowed Austria and West Germany to know the permutations in order to advance.
Austria and Algeria were tied atop the group on four points, while West Germany had two points following a win and a loss. West Germany needed a victory in order to move on. Already holding a better goal difference at plus-2 versus Algeria’s 0, West Germany went ahead via a Horst Hrubesch goal in the 10th minute.
Now that the West Germans were in a position to move on, the match turned into a farce as players from both sides dropped their intensity levels. Play turned into a passing contest and few tackles were attempted until the final whistle. Fans on both sides expressed their disgust inside the El Molinón stadium in Gijón, Spain.
German forward Pierre Littbarski (top) hugs Horst Hrubesch after the latter has just scored a goal. The German side scores an early 1-0 lead in the first half after which the game turns into a charade during the World Cup group game Germany against Austria in Gijon, Spain on 25 June 1982. Both teams continued to stage the match and harmlessly play the ball back and forth until the final whistle since a 1-0 German victory would advance both teams into the second round and eliminate Algeria from the competition. The game ended with furious protests from the 40,000 spectators and was considered to be one of the biggest scandals in World Cup history. (Photo by /picture alliance via Getty Images)
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
“We were about 20 minutes in before I started getting a bad feeling,” referee Bob Valentine, who was officiating his first World Cup match, told The Athletic in 2022. “I started thinking, ‘There’s not much tackling taking place here, you know.’ Then one guy got over the halfway line, stopped with the ball and sent it all the way back to his goalkeeper. Instead of putting it into the opposition box, he played it backwards. That was the moment when I realised something was wrong.”
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West Germany, along with Austria, would advance with a 1-0 win and the match would be known as “The Disgrace of Gijón.”
The result didn’t sit well with the Algerians. Despite an appeal, FIFA ruled that there was no wrongdoing and no rules were broken, despite the uproar of criticism.
Austria would fail to advance out of the second group stage, losing to France and tying Northern Ireland. West Germany would reach the final before losing to Italy.
FIFA would eventually react. Beginning with the 1986 World Cup, the final two matches in each group would be played at the same time, ensuring no hijinx.
