Disgrace of Gijón

West Germany v Austria

Disgrace of Gijón (Schande von Gijón) Scandal of Gijón (فضيحة خيخون) The Shameful Match (le Match de la honte)
El Molinón, the venue for the match
Event	1982 FIFA World Cup
West Germany Austria 1 0
Both teams advance to second round Algeria eliminated from 1982 FIFA World Cup on goal difference
Date	25 June 1982 (1982-06-25)
Venue	El Molinón, Gijón
Referee	Bob Valentine (Scotland)
Attendance	41,000

The Disgrace of Gijón (Spanish: Desgracia de Gijón) was a 1982 FIFA World Cup football match played between West Germany and Austria at the El Molinón stadium in Gijón, Spain, on 25 June 1982. The match was the sixth and last game of the first-round Group 2, with the fifth game having concluded the previous day.

Due to the tiebreaker rules in the group stage, a West German win by one or two goals would ensure that both Austria and West Germany advanced to the next round. West Germany scored the only goal in the first 10 minutes of the match, which progressively deteriorated to a virtual standstill in the second half. Despite widespread condemnation and a formal complaint lodged by Algeria – who were consequently eliminated – FIFA ruled that neither team had broken any rules.

Following this match, along with similar matches at the previous World Cup in Argentina, FIFA subsequently revised the group system for future tournaments so that the final two games in each group would be played simultaneously. This change made it highly impractical for teams to engage in match-fixing, since they would not know what result was required ahead of time.

In German, the match is known as Nichtangriffspakt von Gijón (lit. "Non-aggression pact of Gijón") or Schande von Gijón (lit. "Disgrace of Gijón"), while in Algeria it is called فضيحة خيخون (faḍīḥat Khīkhūn, "Scandal of Gijón"), and in French: le Match de la honte (lit. "The Shameful Match"); it is also satirically referred to as the Anschluss (a reference to the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938).

Background

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	2	2	0	0	3	0	+3	4	One match left
2	Algeria	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	4	Undecided (Matches finished)
3	West Germany	2	1	0	1	5	3	+2	2	One match left
4	Chile	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0	Eliminated

Updated to match(es) played on 24 June 1982. Source: FIFA

Algeria began their campaign by recording a surprising 2–1 win over West Germany on the opening day, described as the "greatest World Cup upset since North Korea beat Italy in 1966", and as "one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history". Algeria became the first African or Arab 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. Algeria's victory over Chile made them the first ever African or Arab team to win twice at a World Cup.

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. Any West German win by one or two goals would see both West Germany and Austria qualify based on goal differential tiebreaker. A West German victory by four goals or more would see West Germany and Algeria qualify. A West German win by exactly three goals would send Austria and Algeria to the next tiebreaker (goals scored), where Austria would need to score at least two goals in defeat to advance in this scenario. West Germany would not advance without a victory.

Match

Summary

After ten minutes of furious attack, West Germany succeeded in scoring through a goal by Horst Hrubesch after a cross from the left. 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, then the ball was passed back to the goalkeeper. Isolated long balls were played into the opposition's half, with little consequence. There were few tackles, and both sets of players flamboyantly missed with apparently no attempt at accuracy whenever they shot on goal. The only Austrian player who seemed to make any effort at livening the game up was Walter Schachner, though he had little success, while one of the few serious attempts on net was made by Wolfgang Dremmler of West Germany.

This performance was widely deplored by all observers. West German ARD commentator Eberhard Stanjek at one point refused to commentate on the game any longer. Austrian commentator Robert Seeger bemoaned the spectacle, and asked viewers to turn off their television sets. George Vecsey, a New York Times journalist, stated that the teams "seemed to work in concert", though added that proving such would be impossible. El Comercio, the local newspaper, printed the match report in its crime section.

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!", which is commonly used at weddings) were shouted by the Spanish crowd, while angry Algerian supporters waved banknotes at the players. The match was criticized even by the West 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 West German fan burned the national flag in protest.

Details

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 Toni Schumacher SW 15 Uli Stielike RB 20 Manfred Kaltz CB 4 Karlheinz Förster LB 2 Hans-Peter Briegel CM 3 Paul Breitner CM 6 Wolfgang Dremmler CM 14 Felix Magath RF 11 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  66' CF 9 Horst Hrubesch  69' LF 7 Pierre Littbarski Substitutes: GK 22 Eike Immel DF 5 Bernd Förster MF 18 Lothar Matthäus  66' FW 8 Klaus Fischer  69' FW 13 Uwe Reinders 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 Substitutes: GK 22 Klaus Lindenberger DF 12 Anton Pichler DF 13 Max Hagmayr MF 14 Ernst Baumeister FW 20 Kurt Welzl Managers: Felix Latzke and Georg Schmidt

Aftermath

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

Source: FIFA

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. The match-fixing saw Austria give 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 were affected by West Germany being in danger of elimination if they failed to win, but also being the better team. By coming second in the group, Austria's second-stage group was France and Northern Ireland. West Germany's opponents were hosts Spain and England who had previously beaten France. Also, for three of the starting players (Horst Hrubesch for West Germany, Josef Degeorgi and Roland Hattenberger for Austria), an additional incentive to avoid aggressive play was that they had been previously booked in their respective teams' first two games. Under the rules then in force, an additional yellow card for any of them in the final group match would have resulted in them serving an automatic one-match ban to start the second round.

After the match, the West German team went back to their hotel where they were met by furious spectators who threw eggs and other projectiles at them; the West Germans returned fire with water bombs. German and Austrian television commentators were so appalled at the match that they urged viewers on live television to stop watching the match and watch something else. The Algerian football officials lodged an official protest. 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. However, FIFA considered that no rules were broken as a result of the match, and declined to take any action. Both teams denied any collusion during the match. West Germany manager Jupp Derwall defended his team from the criticism, pointing out that Uli Stielike and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were both unfit. 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.

As a result of the game, from the World Cup 1986 onward, the final pair of group matches in World Cups always start simultaneously.

Later journalists have taken another look at the match, wondering if claims of "non-aggression" are exaggerated. In The Irish Times, Rob Smyth wrote that "The 10 minutes after Hrubesch's goal would even be described as exhilarating in some cultures, with Wolfgang Dremmler forcing a fine save from Friedrich Koncilia (the second and final shot on target in the match) and Paul Breitner missing two good chances. The game slows down towards half-time, principally because the hitherto dominant Germany start to play on the counterattack. Hrubesch would have had a clear shooting chance in the 57th minute had he not hopelessly miscontrolled Felix Magath’s expert chip. As late as the 77th minute, when the game was losing what edge it had, Bernd Krauss broke into the box and forced a desperate clearance from Hans-Peter Briegel. A goal then would have put West Germany out."

Almost all participants denied an outright agreement to fix the match. Austrian player Reinhold Hintermaier described the situation on the pitch as follows: "It somehow took on a life of its own - everyone just thought that they wanted to get ahead".

Similar cases in football

• 1982 World Cup - Spain vs Northern Ireland In the aftermath of the Disgrace of Gijón during the 1982 World Cup, another suspicious incident occurred in the match between Northern Ireland and Spain on June 25, 1982. Similar to the controversial West Germany versus Austria game, both teams knew that a narrow victory for Northern Ireland would secure their advancement to the knockout stages. After Gerry Armstrong scored the decisive goal in the 47th minute, the game witnessed a significant drop in intensity, with neither side making substantial efforts to score, raising concerns about the competition's integrity and prompting calls for FIFA to reconsider World Cup rules to prevent collusion.
• Thailand 3–2 Indonesia, where an Indonesian defender deliberately scored an own goal so his team did not have to face the host Vietnam in the semi-finals of the 1998 Tiger Cup.
• AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne, where SO l'Emyrne players deliberately scored 149 own goals in protest of refereeing decisions that had gone against them in the previous match.
• Barbados 4–2 Grenada, where a Barbadian defender deliberately scored an own goal so his team could win by two goals in extra-time, according to an unconventional golden goal rule that FIFA had implemented.
• Coventry City 2–2 Bristol City, the final match for both sides in the 1977 English First Division. With five minutes remaining, players received news of a Sunderland defeat which meant a draw would save both Coventry and Bristol from relegation. Both sides stopped attempting to score for the final five minutes.
• Perú 1-1 Colombia, where Colombian and Peruvian players accorded a draw which benefited both teams in the 2018 World Cup qualification. Colombia qualified directly, Perú defeated New Zealand in a play-off and Chile was eliminated, being the victim of this pact.
• The 2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament match between Uzbekistan and Japan, which ended in a 0-2 result, drew controversy due to allegations of match manipulation. Both teams, led by Japanese coaches, appeared to benefit from the outcome: Japan avoided a potential playoff against Australia, a formidable opponent, while Uzbekistan maintained a chance for a playoff berth due to the low scoreline. Japan scored two goals within the first 15 minutes, after which both teams exhibited notably passive play for the remaining 75 minutes, with no shots attempted by either side. This result effectively eliminated China from contention. Japan subsequently qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics by defeating North Korea in a playoff match.

See also

• Austria v West Germany (1978 FIFA World Cup)
• Austria at the FIFA World Cup
• Germany at the FIFA World Cup

External links

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