Football fans around the world would have noticed that the final groupstage matches of FIFA World Cup 2018, that started on Monday, are being held at the same time. The reason behind it is not co-incidence or human error but dates back to an incident 36 years ago. The same-time schedule for both group matches is because of what happened in Gijon, Spain in the 1982 World Cup finals. The incident is infamously remembered as Disgrace of Gijon.
Disgrace of Gijon
In 1982, Algeria made their debut at the World Cup and began well against then European champions West Germany, beating them 2-1 in their opening group match. They then went on to beat Chile to sit on the second spot with four points a day before the final groupstage match between West Germany and Austria.
Set to advance to the next stage, all Algeria needed was for Austria to win or the their final match. But after West Germany took 1-0 lead, both sides looked content on passing the ball to each other till the match ended. There were rumours that both the sides decided during half-time that they will keep the scoreline 1-0 so both West Germany and Austria advance to the knockouts.
The match lacked so much will to play that even the commentators stopped their job and told the viewers to switch off their TV. Even though Algerian football officials lodged a complaint with FIFA for investigation into the matter, nothing came out of it and both West Germany and Austria denied the allegations.
Hence, since 1986, the World Cup has been holding final groupstage matches at the same time to avoid fixing.