FIFA World Cup fails: the biggest blunders ever made

Benching Brazilian Leônidas da Silva - At the 1938 Word Cup, Brazil's coach Ademar Pimenta made the wild decision not to play his best player in the semifinal game against Italy. The coach said he was resting soccer superstar Leônidas da Silva for the final, according to ESPN. Brazil lost that game to Italy. A different theory says that former Italian leader Benito Mussolini (pictured) "applied pressure" to ensure the famous striker would not play.

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The Maracana Blow - At the 1950 final against Uruguay, Brazil lost in their own backyard 1-2, a game the nation was expected to win. Goalkeeper Moacir Barbosa shouldered the blame for the loss for being out of position at his net, allowing Uruguay to score the winning goal.

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Ghost goal - During the 1966 FIFA World Cup final, England was crowned the winner after a 4-2 win over West Germany. But they were given their controversial third goal which was later proven to be no goal at all due to technological developments, as reported by Sportskeeda.

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Trophy theft - Before England was crowned the champion in 1966, the trophy, which was then known as the Jules Rimet Trophy, was stolen just a few months before the start of the tournament in London. Eventually, the trophy was found by a man and his dog and returned in time for the World Cup.

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Trophy theft - And it was stolen again! In 1970, the trophy was given to Brazil after their third World Cup win. But in 1983, it was stolen in Rio de Janeiro, never to be found again. As reported in the Mirror Online, it is widely believed that the trophy was melted down.

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Ilunga Mwepu - A comedic misstep (literally) occurred during the 1974 World Cup in a game between Brazil and Zaire. Zaire soccer player Ilunga Mwepu broke away from his team's defensive wall to boot away the ball as Brazil was preparing for a free kick. (Photo: Flickr/CC by 2.0)

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Dutch disaster - In the final between the Netherlands and West Germany in 1974, the Dutch players "forgot to score a second goal," as per player Johnny Rep. They were in the lead after an initial penalty kick...that is until the Germans equalized. The winning goal came at the 43rd minute.

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No foul! - In the 1982 semifinal, German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher crashed into French player Patrick Battiston and knocked him unconscious!

Despite Battiston being taken off the pitch on a stretcher, the big blunder came when referee Charles Corver decided not to consider the hit a foul.

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Hand of God - A major referee error happened during the 1986 quarterfinals in a game between Argentina and England. Referee Bin Nasser totally missed Argentinian player Diego Maradona's famous "Hand of God" goal at the 51st minute.

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Colombia's crazy keeper - During one particular 1990 World Cup match, Colombia's most bizarre goalkeeper, René Higuita's (aka "El Loco") antics proved to be quite the massive error in a game against Cameroon. Higuita was so far away from the net (almost to the halfway line), that he essentially left it wide open for Cameroon to score.

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A fatal flub - The most tragic mistake occurred during a 1994 World Cup game between the United States and Colombia. Colombia's Andrés Escobar accidentally shot into his own net. Following the World Cup, Escobar was brutally shot and killed in Medellín.

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Roberto Baggio's bad kick - The first time that a World Cup final game was to be decided based on penalty shots, Italy's Roberto Baggio disappointed after his penalty kick flew over the bar in 1994.

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Oh, the drama! - Soccer is often filled with ridiculous theatrics from the players. The referee made a terrible choice in sending off a Turkish player for supposedly hitting a Brazilian player in the face with the ball during a 2002 World Cup game. However, video footage, as seen here by Sportskeeda, shows that the ball didn't even hit Brazilian Rivaldo's face at all—it was all an unsportsmanlike act!

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Misjudgment - At the 2002 World Cup, Brazil had been awarded a free kick in a game against England in the quarterfinals. Keeper David Seaman failed to save what should have been a fairly easy shot for the goalie.

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Bad call - During the 2002 quarterfinals, the United States was facing off against Germany. In the 50th minute, a shot, which was sure to be a goal by American defender Gregg Berhalter, was stopped with a handball by German player Torsten Frings.

The United States' Landon Donovan (left) is seen here fighting for a penalty following the incident, but it was not given.

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Special treatment - There is no better proof that sometimes a host nation gets favorable treatment than with the 2002 tournament. Refs helped host country South Korea slide through to the semifinals with bad call after bad call, allowing them to ultimately finish in fourth place.

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Own goal - A World Cup game between England and Paraguay in 2006 saw England win 1-0 with a goal they did not even make themselves! It was Paraguayan Carlos Gamarra who unintentionally headed the ball into his own net.

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Career-ending error - During a World Cup match in 2006, English ref Graham Poll booked Croatian player Josip Šimunić three times with a yellow card, before finally sending him off the pitch.

Poll was sent home for the remainder of the tournament by FIFA for his miscalculation, according to the BBC. Poll also retired from international refereeing following the horrendous oversight, as reported by The Guardian.

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Costly headbutt - France's Zinédine Zidane let his anger get the best of him during his final game when he famously headbutted Italian player Marco Materazzi after Materazzi made an offensive remark.

The iconic moment went down during the 2006 World Cup final. Zidane was sent off following the physical attack and without their star player, France lost the cup to Italy in a penalty shoot-out.

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Qualifiers - During the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, France was playing Ireland for the last spot in the tournament. France's Thierry Henry helped teammate William Gallas score the game-winning goal by handling the ball with his left hand and keeping it in play!

The referee missed the obvious handball, which Henry even later admitted to, and Ireland was cheated out of a spot in South Africa.

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Butterfingers - An England versus United States game at the 2010 World Cup saw England's goalkeeper Robert Green fumble the ball after a shot by United States' Clint Dempsey.

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Disallowed goal - This beautiful goal seen here by United States' Maurice Edu was rebuffed for an unknown reason during a match against Slovenia at the 2010 World Cup.

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Missed goal - Assistant referee Mauricio Espinosa made a horrible call when neither him nor main referee Jorge Larrionda awarded a legitimate goal by England's Frank Lampard in a game against Germany at the 2010 World Cup.

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Unsportsmanlike - One of the dirtiest finals ever played in a World Cup was the 2010 game between Spain and the Netherlands. Spain was ultimately named the champion with a final score of 1-0, but the game was filled with a high number of yellow cards. Referee Howard Webb was heavily criticized for making bad calls and missing serious incidents.

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Bite mark -

At the 2014 World Cup in a game with Italy, Uruguay's Luis Suarez collided with Italy's Giorgio Chiellini and left a nasty bite mark on the Italian defender's left shoulder. The referee of the match Marco Rodríguez did not penalize Suarez, but Suarez was eventually suspended by FIFA for the remainder of the tournament.

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Marcelo's mistake - The first goal of the 2014 World Cup was a huge blooper. It was scored by Brazil's Marcelo...in his own net! This gave their opponent Croatia a 1-0 lead. But this slip was only the beginning of Brazil's humiliating 2014 World Cup journey...

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Disgraceful defeat - Who could forget Brazil's overwhelming defeat at the last World Cup when they were knocked out of the tournament after losing to Germany 1-7? With star players Neymar and captain Thiago Silva sidelined, the Seleção was just a mess and a national shame.

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Laura Basset - It is not just the men who make unforgivable blunders. During the Women's World Cup in 2015, England's Laura Basset guaranteed a win for Japan when she unwittingly kicked the ball into her own net. Japan won 2-1.

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Failed qualifiers - The most recent World Cup gaffe took place at last year's qualifiers. Soccer powerhouse Italy astonishingly failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, as reported by The Independent. The defeated Italians lost 0-1 to Sweden.

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FIFA World Cup fails: the biggest blunders ever made

When the eyes of the world are upon you, there's little room for error!

04/06/18 | StarsInsider

LIFESTYLE Sports

The FIFA World Cup tournament sees the best soccer players from around the world come together to compete for the glorious World Cup trophy and title. But even the best sports heroes and refs in the world aren't perfect and mistakes are to be expected.

While it might be easy to laugh off some of these often embarrassing yet hilarious errors, other flubs have proven to be much more serious—even fatal in some cases!

Whether it's a bad call by a referee or a foul play by an athlete that costs them the match, click through this gallery to check out some of the biggest fails in FIFA World Cup history.