World Cup 2010: The 10 Most Inglorious World Cup Conspiracies Ever

It is the world's biggest sporting event, moving billions of dollars, shown throughout the world to billions of viewers, with national interests at stake, political interests involved, and just about every other sort of tug-of-war you can expect from a sport governed by a single entity called FIFA with a membership surpassing even that of the United Nations.

Herein presented are some of the most inglorious moments of the FIFA World Cup.

The German Flight

Having already qualified for the second stage in 1974, West Germany are said to have allowed the weak East German squad a slender 1-0 victory in order to avoid stronger opposition in the next phase versus the likes of Holland, Argentina, or Brazil.

The Hunt for Puskas

In 1954 the German people were bewildered when Sepp Herberger put a mixed team in to play the powerful Hungarian side and subsequently lost horribly 8-3.

However the most important role played in this match was by Germany's Horst Eckel, who marked and destroyed Hungary's star player Puskas to the point where he had to be removed from the game. Barely able to walk properly, Puskas would return only in the final to face the very same Germany side, only to lose to the devious Germans 3-2.

The Maradona Betrayal

Caught in a doping test in 1994, Maradona claimed to have been persecuted by FIFA.

In an apparent bid to popularize football in America and increase ticket sales for the World Cup, FIFA is alleged to have made a deal with the superstar, allowing him to use weight loss drugs in order to be fit for the event only to betray him when his popularity was no longer needed.

The Brazilian Sacrifice

Ronaldo's convulsions hours before playing France in the 1998 final were themselves dubious to say the least, with the forward never before or after suffering from such an ailment. What or who caused his attack we'll perhaps never know. Despite his state and despite the fact that his name subsequently was removed from the list of players, he did play the final.

It was alleged after the match that Brazil had sold the final in a bid to host a future World Cup.

Strangely enough, Brazil were the only candidate for 2014 in a bizarre single country World Cup bid.

The Mussolini World Cup

The dictator's influence in the 1934 World Cup is very well documented.

It started off with a note to all Italian players which simply read, "victory or death."

Many of the referees were hand picked by Mussolini with Czechoslovakia and Austria paying the price heavily, as both squads were victimized by poor reffing. Monti, the Argentinian star of the 1930 World Cup, was also sent threatening letters and invited to become a naturalized Italian to play for Italy in 1934.

The European Conspiracy

In 1966, yet another host nation benefited.

Even before the controversial goal in the final this World Cup was rife with scandal, as European squads seemed to unite in an effort to play against each other.

The Portuguese team set out to destroy the world's greatest player of all time—Pele, and they did. Having removed the superstar and his Brazilian team, it then came down to a bit more cooperation amongst European nations to get the ideal final.

West Germany played Uruguay with an English ref, and Argentina played England with a West German ref. Unsurprisingly both West Germany and England advanced to the final.

Assault on the Italians

In 2002 Italy were strangely upset by host nation South Korea. Ecuadorian ref Byron Moreno sent Totti off and annulled a seemingly legitimate Tommasi goal.

According to the Italian press the controversial ref was later seen in Miami enjoying an all paid vacation.
In the subsequent matches Korea were also benefited by ref Gamal Ghandour.

Garrincha Makes the Final

Garrincha had been booked in the semifinal and by the rules was not supposed to play the 1962 final. There was some sort of a trial in which the linesman did not appear...yadda yadda yadda...and somehow Garrincha played in the final.

Don't Drink The Water

When Argentina and Brazil locked horns in 1990 it appears that Carlos Bilardo had come up with a clever plan to dope some of the water bottles which would be offered to the Brazilians at those little match breaks from time to time.

Brazilian player Branco was the first to complain of drowsiness which resulted in Maradona dribbling through the sluggish Brazilians and feeding a ball to Cannigia who scored the only goal. Both Bilardo and Maradona have given up half-confessions to this one from time to time.

The Moral Champions

In the 1978 World Cup Brazil were sent home despite having not lost a single match.

Argentina needed an improbable big victory versus Peru in order to send the Brazilians home on goal difference. Turns out the Peruvians offered no resistance allowing the host nation to overrun them 6-0, sending home the undefeated Brazilian squad.

Claudio Coutinho dubbed Brazil "The moral champions."