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The Disgrace of Gijon

played together, but that didn’t help Algeria. Somebody worked out that a 1-0 West
Germany win would see both them and Austria through, so that’s what they ensured
would happen.
The game had the atmosphere of a dead-rubber, and it only got worse as time went on.
Horst Hrubesch scored the goal that the West Germans needed on the tenth minute,
and then both sides just… stopped. No more attacking, no more chances, just some very
polite passing to see the game out. The spectacle got more farcical as time went on,
until the final whistle. Algeria were out.
It’s called the Scandal of Gijon in Algeria. For the final thirty minutes, one commentator
told his viewers to turn their televisions off and refused to speak until the final whistle.
Algeria cried foul, and FIFA did nothing. Germany fans bombarded the team hotel with
water bombs out of shame. But Austria’s representative Hans Tschak wasn’t just
unapologetic, he was downright outrageous. ‘If 10,000 ‘son’s of the desert’… want to
trigger a scandal because of this is just shows they have too few schools’ he said. ‘ Some
Sheikh comes out of an oasis, is allowed to get a sniff of World Cup air after 300 years,
and thinks he’s entitled to open his gob.’ It was an embarrassing end to the group for
all involved.
Algeria’s appeal was rejected, without much explanation, but after the scandal at the
1978 World Cup, where Argentina had won 6-0 in their final group game because their
rivals had played earlier, they did take the opportunity to change the format
slightly. For forty years since that tournament, final group games are played at
the same time to try to limit the advantage. West Germany went all the way to
the final, but Algeria will always have been robbed by the Disgrace of Gijon.
Enjoy the game.

Martyn Green, The Untold Game
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