Disgrace of Gijón

West Germany v Austria

El Molinón held the match
Event	1982 FIFA World Cup
West Germany Austria 1 0
Date	25 June 1982
Venue	El Molinón, Gijón, Spain
Referee	Bob Valentine (Scotland)
Attendance	41,000

The Disgrace of Gijón refers to the 1982 FIFA World Cup football match played between West Germany and Austria at the El Molinón stadium, Gijón, Spain, on 25 June 1982. The match was the last game of the first-round Group 2, with Algeria and Chile having played the day before. With the outcome of that match already decided, a win by one or two goals for West Germany would result in both them and Austria qualifying at the expense of Algeria, who had beaten West Germany in the first game. After 10 minutes, West Germany took the lead. Thereafter, neither team scored, and few scoring chances were created, along with much own-half passing and few tackles: with both sets of players flamboyantly missing with no clear attempt to guide the ball whenever they shot on goal.^[1]

As a result of this, and similar events at the previous World Cup in Argentina, FIFA revised the group system for future tournaments, so that the final two games in each group would be played simultaneously.^[2] In German, the match is known as Nichtangriffspakt von Gijón (lit. "Non-aggression pact of Gijón") or Schande von Gijón (lit. "Disgrace of Gijón"),^[3] while in Algeria and the rest of the world it is known as the Anschluss (in reference to the unification of Austria and Nazi Germany in 1938).^[4]

Background

• Note: 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, first tie-breaker is goal difference.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Austria	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	4
Algeria	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	4
West Germany	2	1	0	1	5	3	+2	2
Chile	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0

Algeria began their campaign by recording a shock 2–1 win over West Germany on the opening day, referred to as the "greatest World Cup upset since North Korea beat Italy in 1966" at the time,^[5] and retrospectively as "one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history".^[6] Algeria became the first African team to defeat a European team at the FIFA World Cup. They then went on to lose 0–2 to Austria before beating Chile 3–2 in their final match. The Chile victory made Algeria the first African team to win twice at a World Cup.^[6]

As Algeria played that final match the day before West Germany met Austria, the two European teams knew what result they needed in order to qualify for the next round. A German win by one or two goals would see both West Germany and Austria qualify. A larger West German victory, by three goals or more, would see West Germany and Algeria qualify (because Algeria had scored more goals than Austria, they would qualify even with the same goal difference) while a draw or an Austrian win would eliminate the Germans.

Match summary

After ten minutes of furious attack, West Germany succeeded in scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch. After the goal was scored, the team in possession of the ball often passed between themselves in their own half until an opposition player came into the vicinity of the ball. The ball was then passed back to the goalkeeper. Isolated long balls were played into the opposition's half, with little consequence. For the next 80 minutes there were few serious attempts on goal, e.g. by Wolfgang Dremmler of West Germany. The only Austrian player who seemed to make any effort at livening the game up was Walter Schachner, though he had little success.

This performance was widely deplored by all observers. German ARD commentator Eberhard Stanjek at one point refused to comment on the game any longer. Austrian commentator Robert Seeger bemoaned the spectacle and actually requested that the viewers should switch off their television sets. George Vecsey, a New York Times journalist writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated that the teams "seemed to work in concert", though added that proving such would be impossible.^[5]

Likewise, many spectators were not impressed and voiced their disgust with the players. Chants of "Fuera, fuera" ("Out, out"), "Argelia, Argelia" ("Algeria, Algeria"), and "Que se besen, que se besen" ("Let them kiss, let them kiss") were screamed by the appalled Spanish crowd,^[7] while angry Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players. The match was criticized even by the German and Austrian fans who had hoped for a hot rematch of the 1978 World Cup match, the so-called "Miracle of Córdoba", in which Austria had beaten West Germany; one German fan burned the national flag in protest.^[8][9] El Comercio, the local newspaper, printed the match report in its crime section.^[10]

Match details

West Germany  v  Austria

25 June 1982 17:15 CEST

West Germany	1–0	Austria
Hrubesch  10'	Report

El Molinón, Gijón Attendance: 41,000 Referee: Bob Valentine (Scotland)

West Germany

Austria

GK 1 Harald Schumacher SW 15 Uli Stielike RB 20 Manfred Kaltz LB 2 Hans-Peter Briegel CB 4 Karlheinz Förster CM 3 Paul Breitner CM 6 Wolfgang Dremmler CM 14 Felix Magath RF 11 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  66' FW 9 Horst Hrubesch  10'  68' LF 7 Pierre Littbarski Substitutes: GK 21 Bernd Franke GK 22 Eike Immel DF 5 Bernd Förster FW 8 Klaus Fischer  68' MF 10 Hansi Müller DF 12 Wilfried Hannes FW 13 Uwe Reinders FW 16 Thomas Allofs MF 17 Stephan Engels MF 18 Lothar Matthäus  66' DF 19 Holger Hieronymus Manager: Jupp Derwall

GK 1 Friedrich Koncilia DF 2 Bernd Krauss DF 3 Erich Obermayer DF 4 Josef Degeorgi DF 5 Bruno Pezzey MF 6 Roland Hattenberger FW 7 Walter Schachner  32' MF 8 Herbert Prohaska FW 9 Hans Krankl MF 10 Reinhold Hintermaier  32' DF 19 Heribert Weber Substitute: GK 21 Herbert Feurer GK 22 Klaus Lindenberger MF 11 Kurt Jara DF 12 Anton Pichler DF 13 Max Hagmayr MF 14 Ernst Baumeister MF 15 Johann Dihanich MF 16 Gerald Messlender MF 17 Johann Pregesbauer FW 18 Gernot Jurtin FW 20 Kurt Welzl Manager: Felix Latzke & Georg Schmidt

Aftermath

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
West Germany	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	4
Austria	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	4
Algeria	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	4
Chile	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0

With West Germany's 1–0 victory, they joined Austria and Algeria with four points in three matches. The teams were separated by goal difference, with West Germany and Austria progressing to the next round of the tournament at the expense of Algeria.

It appears that this was a case of spontaneous match-fixing, in which Austria gave up their opportunity to be first in the group (by winning or drawing the match) in exchange for a sure opportunity to advance. The bargaining positions of the two teams was affected by West Germany being in danger of elimination if it failed to win, but also being the higher-ability team.^[11]

The Algerian football officials were furious and lodged an official protest. However no rules were technically broken as a result of the match, so FIFA declined to take any action or investigation and the outcome was allowed to stand. Both teams denied any collusion during the match.^[12] West Germany manager Jupp Derwell defended his team from the criticism, pointing out that Uli Stielike and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were both unfit.^[13]

In addition, the president of the Algerian Football Federation opined that referee Bob Valentine should have intervened and his failure to do so was worthy of complaint.^[14]

The West Germans made it to the final, where they lost to Italy 3–1. Austria fell at the next group stage, to the benefit of eventual fourth-place finishers France.

The direct consequence of the game was that from Euro 1984 and World Cup 1986 onward, the final pair of group matches in international tournaments always start at the same time.^[15]

In Euro 2004 Group C, it was alleged that Denmark and Sweden deliberately played to a 2–2 draw which saw both teams advance at the expense of Italy.^{[nb 1]} UEFA refused to investigate.^[16][17]

At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the last ten minutes of the group match between Chile and Spain saw similar behaviour.^[18]

Following German reunification in 1990, the reunified German team inherited the history of the West German side. Germany played Algeria in the last 16 of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Lakhdar Belloumi, who scored the winning goal in 1982, claimed that the 2014 Algerian side would be "inspired" to gain "revenge" due to the events 32 years before.^[19] However, Germany went on to win 2–1 in extra time after a hard-fought match,^[20]and went on to win the tournament.

Notes

1. ↑ The 2–2 draw between Denmark and Sweden ensured the elimination of Italy, which simultaneously played its last group match against already-eliminated Bulgaria, because UEFA's tiebreakers took into consideration head-to-head results before overall goal difference. Because both Sweden and Denmark had lower-scoring draws with Italy, and because both teams had beaten Bulgaria, it was known prior to the final pair of group matches that a draw of 2–2 or higher score would eliminate Italy regardless of the result of their match with Bulgaria.

References

External links

• Video highlights of the game on BBC Sport (UK only)