World cup Legends

WORLD CUP LEGENDS
MOMENTS
2 JUNE 1962
THE BATTLE OF
SANTIAGO
Chile and Italy do battle in the World
Cup’s most violent match
The bad blood that helped feed this
infamous match started well ahead of
time. A pair of Italian journalists wrote
inlammatory statements about 1962 World
Cup hosts Chile, describing the nation as
a backwards place, rife with prostitution,
alcoholism, illiteracy and malnutrition.
Unsurprisingly, Chilean newspapers didn’t
take kindly to that, in turn referring to
Italians as maiosos, fascists and drug
addicts. It didn’t take long for that ill-feeling
to manifest when the two met.
It was only 12 seconds before the irst foul
was committed. Not long after, the irst red
was issued to Italy’s Giorgio Ferrini, who
refused to leave the pitch and had to be
dragged of by the police. Somehow, Chile
got away with throwing a few punches at
their opponents, Honorino Landa letting
one loose in retaliation for Ferrini’s foul and
Leonel Sánchez punching both Humberto
Maschio and Mario David, with Maschio
sufering a broken nose. David tried to get
revenge soon after the punch when he
kicked Sánchez in the head. He was sent of
by the referee.
Fouling, spitting and intermittent scules
continued to punctuate the match, and
the police had to get involved several
times. The BBC broadcast of the notorious
match famously introduced it as “the most
stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful
exhibition of football possibly in the history
of the game.” Chile won, but it’s not the
result that made this game famous, rather
the awful spirit in which it was played.
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