25 of the Weirdest Decisions in World Football History

Football is often times a strange, strange animal. And while the Beautiful Game has played home to many geniuses on and off the pitch, it's also bred with quite a bit of insanity. So, here's our tribute to 25 of the weirdest decisions in world football history, from inexplicable transfers to off-the-wall tactics to the out-and-out bizarre.

Obviously, we could only pick 25 and there are room for plenty more crazy moves. Tell us about your favorites that we missed in the comments. 

25. Alexi Lalas Covers a Willow Smith Song

The American star and former L.A. Galaxy manager made his mark in the music world with his band, The Gypsies, who opened for Hootie & The Blowfish in their heyday. Since then, he's enjoyed a solo career, including the rather gutsy venture of this R&B-tinged cover of "Whip My Hair," which, for the uninitiated, was a hit single last year for Will Smith's daughter Willow. And, with Lalas' flowing ginger locks, it kind of works.

24. Playing Football with a BALL of FIRE

Fireball football, a trend that has popped up across the world in parts of Asia and seen in this video in Colombia, is decidedly ill-advised, but still looks totally awesome. 

23. Manchester City Fan Brings Dead Chickens into Stadium

In an act that has already made its way into Manchester City and football folklore, a City fan was banned from Maine Road in 1995 for bringing dead chickens into the stadium. Apparently, he used to celebrate the Blue Moons' goals by swinging the pulverized poultry over his head. Anybody hungry?

22. Tony Cascarino Traded for 'Training Equipment'

Many urban legends have surfaced about the circumstances surrounding the Republic of Ireland international's transfer from Crokenhill to Gillingham, the most famous being that he was given to the current League Two side for the low, low price of a piece of corrugated iron. 

Cascarino, however, contends that his price was a bit higher, and that he went for "some training equipment." The striker went on to appear more than 200 times and score 78 goals for the Gills. Not bad for a pile of tracksuits, eh?

21. The 'No Charades' Rule

There have been more strange decisions made while officiating than we can possibly count, but what about strange decisions about officiating?

FIFA has a rule for referees that although body language is indeed essential to maintaining control and order over a match, officials cannot use body language in order to explain a decision. Huh?

20. Fan Takes a Penalty... and Scores!

As we all know, fans love to use the royal "we" when referring to their team, as if they themselves were capable of winning a match or scoring a goal. But one lucky—or crazy, we can't decide—Spartak Moscow fan can use the "we" with accuracy. 

At a 2009 Russian Premier League match, the dedicated Spartak supporter decided to take a penalty for his team in a match at rivals FC Saturn. The craziest part? He actually scored, and celebrated with a lap down the pitch. Spartak's Alex, the intended penalty-taker, eventually scored the "real" goal, but Spartak still lost 2-1.

19. Ian Wright’s Transfer Fee

Like most players, Crystal Palace and Arsenal legend Ian Wright came from humble beginnings and even humbler prospects. But in 1985, Wright caught the eye of Crystal Palace skipper Steve Coppell while playing for Eltham-based Kent League club Greenwich Borough. Sensing that he had something special on his hands, Coppell took Wright off Greenwich's hands in exchange for six kits and a set of weights.  

Following his stint at Crystal Palace, Wright went on to a successful, Premiership-winning run at another London club, Arsenal. Who knows if Greenwich Borough still has the set of weights and kits Crystal Palace gave them.

18. England Takes Theo Walcott to 2006 World Cup

He's now a fixture at Arsenal and on the England national team, but five years ago, Theo Walcott, then 17, was a shock addition to the Three Lions World Cup squad. Fans were stunned to see Walcott, a buzzy teenager who had just been transferred to Arsenal but had yet to play in the Premiership, join the England senior squad for the most important international football tournament when manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had yet to play him. 

He was chosen over a number of far more established strikers, among them Darren Bent, Jermain Defoe and Crystal Palace star Andrew Johnson and fans were critical of the decision. But Walcott did not have a chance to deliver on his promise, as Eriksson opted not to bring him on the pitch. England advanced to the Round of 16, but were eventually vanquished by Portugal. Had the striker roster been different... who knows?

17. Massimo Taibi Replaces Peter Schmeichel

Schmeichel is widely regarded as one of the greatest keepers in Manchester United history. So it comes as particularly surprising when Sir Alex Ferguson replaced him with one of its worst.

Taibi, who ended his career at Serie B club Ascoli in 2009, is often included on the short list of the Premiership's worst transfers of all time. After the impressive, if not legendary, reign of Peter Schmeichel in the back of the net for the Red Devils, Taibi came over from Venice to a £4.4 million fanfare. Despite a free kick blunder in his debut against Liverpool, he was somehow still named Man of the Match for later saves in United's 3-2 win. 

But Taibi's redemption did not last long. His epic gaffe against Southampton that allowed Matt LeTissier to score an easy goal was the death knell of his time at Old Trafford, and he would go on to appear only twice more for the club.

16. Mwepu Ilunga's Escape Efforts

If you were playing for your citizenship, you'd probably resort to some drastic measures, too.

In 1974, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) advanced to the World Cup for their first and only time, making them the first sub-Saharan African country to ever do so. However, their footballing glory was to be short-lived, as the team netted the worst ever loss in World Cup history, a 9-0 devastation at the hands of Yugoslavia. 

On the eve of their last group stage match, against heavy-hitters Brazil (who would go on to finish fourth in the tournament), leader Mobutu Sese Seko warned players that if they lost 4-0 to Brazil, they would be unable to return to their home countries. 

So with 12 minutes to go in regular time and the situation looking dire, defender Mwepu Ilunga took matters into his own hands. When Brazil got a free kick, he busted through the defensive wall and launched the ball away. Ilunga came away with a yellow card and The Leopards lost 3-0, thus allowing them to return to their homelands. Their defender's snap actions live on as one of the strangest occurrences in World Cup history, however.

15. Not Sending off Harald Schumacher for His Collision

There have been plenty of cases throughout history of dirty tackles, brutal collisions and shocking challenges not getting the attention or discipline they deserved, but this one just boggles our minds.

In a 1982 World Cup semi-final between France and Germany, German keeper Harald Schumacher, in an effort to prevent Patrick Battiston from scoring, collided with a horrifying smack with the Frenchman. Battiston was knocked unconscious, spent some time in a coma and lost his two front teeth, and Schumacher's jump has been called one of the worst tackles of all time. The referee awarded no free kick and no red card to Schumacher for the collision. 

After the incident, when a French newspaper asked readers who the most evil man in German history had been, Schumacher finished second. To Adolf Hitler.

14. The Albanian National Team’s Five-Finger Discount

They thought "Duty Free" meant "Free-For-All."

In 1990, the Albanian national senior and U21 football teams were on their way to a friendly in Iceland and had a three-hour layover at London's Heathrow Airport. Supposedly confusing the words "duty free" with "all free," the 37 members of the team made off with $3,400 worth of items from the shop without paying for them. 

As one airport employee was quoted in TIME Magazine: "By the time they got to the gate, there were watches everywhere." Heathrow officials detained 30 of the players, but after logistical problems and failure to find a translator, they decided to call off the investigation.

This was likely a classic case of some key words getting lost in translation, in which case you can't really blame the Albanian players. But still, if you're going to walk away with three grand worth of merchandise, it's a good idea to ask. 

13. Kuwaiti Football Boss Rushes the Pitch

The 1982 World Cup was a veritable gold mine of crazy officiating decisions, but this one takes the cake for controversy. 

In a match between France and Kuwait, Les Bleus were up 3-1, and they scored another as their opponents' defenders, who thought they heard the piercing sound of a whistle in the distance, did nothing to stop them. What happened next went into viral sports highlight history.

Prince Fahid, the president of the Kuwaiti football governing body, rushed the field and told the national team to leave in protest of the play. The referee, in response, disallowed the goal. France eventually won 4-1, but it's Fahid's attempt to step in and play manager that fans will remember.

12. Graeme Souness Signs Ali Dia

It was one of the greatest cons in footballing history. In 1996, Senegalese player Ali Dia, after a string of small-time appearances and failed tryouts, decided to try a little embellishment of the ol' CV to break into the big time in English football. 

Desperate for his big break, a friend of Dia's called up Southampton manager Graeme Souness pretending to be the much better, much more well-regarded Liberian international striker George Weah. Weah claimed that Ali Dia was his all-star cousin who had played for Paris Saint-Germain and been capped a number of times for the national team.

The crazy part? Souness bought the story and signed him. But Dia's status as a fraud was quickly revealed when he was used as a substitute for Matt LeTissier in a match against Leeds United and his performance was expectedly terrible. The truth came out, Dia was sacked and weird football history was made.

Souness may have come off as the biggest loser, but Ali Dia made fools of us all.

11. John Harkes Gets Cut from Team USA Right Before the '98 World Cup

Regarded as one of the greatest Americans to play the game, Harkes was the first Yank to play in the Premiership and a fixture on the U.S. Men's National Team throughout the late 1980s and '90s. In fact, he was such a powerful presence that Team USA Coach Steve Sampson named him "Captain For Life" before the 1998 World Cup. And then, he wasn't.

Sampson pulled Harkes off the roster right before the tournament for reasons that seemed murky at the time, and only later was it revealed that the decision was due to Harkes having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda. Like having an affair has ever stopped a footballer from performing.

Without their fearless leader, Team USA finished at the bottom of their group stage and Harkes published a tell-all autobiography a year later, appropriately titled Captain For Life: And Other Temporary Assignments. Ouch. 

10. Barbados Scores an Own Goal to Advance in a Tournament

It sounds crazy, but it's true and it worked.

The Barbados national team scored an own goal to advance in the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cup. In order to advance to the finals, Barbados needed to win by two clear goals. With Grenada closing in and the score 2-1, the Barbadians knew they needed to act fast and that their best option would be to take the match into extra time, where goals count double. So they scored an own goal, scored the winner in overtime and made their way into oddball pitch tactics' history.

9. David Beckham Gets Cornrows

Come on, you knew this one was coming. There is just no reason this had to happen. Only you can prevent terrible football star hairstyles.

8. Marius Cioara, Kenneth Kristiansen and Food-Related Trades (tie)

Apparently, the managers of Vindbjart and UT Arad were really hungry on the days they sold Kenneth Kristiansen and Marius Cioara, respectively. Both players were given to Floey and Regal Hornia for massive amounts of oddly specific foodstuffs. 

The Norwegian went for his body weight in fresh shrimp, an amount determined with a boxing-style weigh-in, while Cioara went to Romanian side UT Arad for 15 kilos of sausage. The latter humiliated Cioara who, already weary of the mockery he received over the situation, quit the club after a day and moved to Spain to work on a farm. Arad, naturally, asked for their sausages back.

To be fair, we can't blame Cioara for getting upset at only being worth 15 kilos of sausage. We would have asked for some mash or sauerkraut to go with it.

7. Bristol City’s Chimp Tea Party

This one's exactly what it says on the tin. The chimpanzee tea party was a popular, albeit cruel, form of entertainment in England throughout most of the 20th century, until it was banned in the 1970s. As one might expect, it involved dressing chimps in human clothes and making them have a tea party.

In a promotional stunt designed to drum up attendance, Bristol City staged one of these on the pitch before a match against West Ham United. Isn't paying for the football enough?

6. France Not Sacking Raymond Domenech Before the 2010 World Cup

Prior to their trip to South Africa in 2010, the French national football team were hungry for a world championship title after losing out to Italy in the 2006 final. Their manager, Raymond Domenech, already under fire for France's disappointing performance in Euro 2008, had announced he would quit his post after the 2010 World Cup. What's mind-boggling is, given his unfavorable track record, controversial tactics and the French team already in the midst of a PR nightmare after Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland, why he was still in charge of the team before the tournament.

When Domenech arrived with Les Bleus in South Africa, things only got worse. Tensions with Nicolas Anelka boiled over and led to the dismissal of the striker halfway through a match. Subsequently, the team began to fall apart, with players boycotting training in protest of how Domenech handled the situation. 

When the team crashed and burned in the end, finishing at the bottom of their group stage, Domenech took the blame. He left his coaching post after the World Cup and was fired from his position on the board of the French Football Federation (FFF) several months later. 

5. David Beckham Goes to the L.A. Galaxy

Sometimes, we wonder what the meeting was like when this decision was made: "Let's see if we can shore up American interest in football by bringing over the one footballer most non-football watching Americans can recognize. It totally worked with Pelé!"

To be fair, it did work with Pelé to a certain extent. He drew huge crowds while playing in the U.S., became a household name and the first footballer most Americans could recognize. His last match with the New York Cosmos drew a crowd of 75,000. He ushered in a brief era of American football, bringing in European and South American megastars (albeit past their prime) to drum up interest, including Franz Beckenbauer and George Best.

But American soccer is a different game now than it was in the '70s when Pelé arrived and the nature of sports stardom is also different. It's more well-established—the teams have their own stadiums, ultras clubs and the league has a growing niche of fans and its own homegrown stars. Besides, it has been importing big names from Europe and South and Central America for a while now. The move felt like little more than a stunt for both sides, with Beckham and his PR team clearly getting the better end of the deal ($250 million potential earnings over a five-year deal). 

For what it's worth, Beckham hasn't given much more to the L.A. Galaxy than a big name on the marquee. He's gone back to play in Europe twice on loan spells to AC Milan and drew the ire of Galaxy fans who called him a "fraud" and a "part-time player." He's rumored to return to Europe next season ahead of the 2012 Olympics, either to a Premiership club (Queens Park Rangers have expressed interest) or Paris Saint-Germain. 

Ah, well. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

4. Zinedine Zidane's Headbutt

While there have certainly been more violent acts that have taken place on a football pitch, Zidane's headbutt of Marco Materazzi (who had insulted his sister) in the 2006 World Cup final is certainly the most iconic, and perhaps had more impact than any other on a player's international perception. In fact, when you Google "Zinedine Zidane," "Zinedine Zidane headbutt" is the second thing that comes up after his name. 

As a result of that action, his subsequent sendoff and France's defeat in the final led to one of the brightest stars of the past several decades decision to retire.

Watch the video for a series of rapid-succession edits of the infamous headbutt. 

3. Brazil Plays a Sick Ronaldo During the 1998 World Cup Final

The circumstances surrounding the Brazilian ace's departure from, and then return to, the starting squad for the 1998 World Cup final between Brazil and France remain somewhat mysterious to this day. 

The night before, something happened. According to the team doctor, Lidio Toledo, Ronaldo had been taken to the hospital after experiencing a brief seizure in his sleep, but cleared all neurological and cardiac tests. According to his teammate, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo had an early-morning breakdown because of the pressure and began crying and vomiting. 

Whatever the case, it did not appear as though Ronaldo would make it to the final. But half an hour before the match, his name was back on the teamsheet after he arrived at the Stade de France and declared himself fit to play. Not completely up to strength, Ronaldo naturally underperformed, and a Zinedine Zidane-led France got the victory and all the glory.

After the match and France's victory, conspiracy theories began to emerge. He had been poisoned. Romantic struggles had led to his downfall. Nike, a team sponsor, has been implicated in some myths about the match, suggesting the sport retailer's execs encouraged coach Mario Zagalo to play Ronaldo. But whatever the case, and whatever really happened to Ronaldo before the match, putting him out on the pitch was a strange decision.

2. Sepp Blatter Is Still the President of FIFA

It's not surprising, but it's weird nonetheless.

Given the allegations of corruption, ill-advised decisions (like fraternizing with Robert Mugabe), ire-drawing comments, lack of administrative transparency and unanswered calls for reform, it's pretty remarkable that the guy who oversaw all of it is still in charge of the governing body of international football. What's even crazier is that he ran unopposed in the last FIFA election, after possible competitors dropped at the last minute.

1. Referees Shoots Coach Who Disagrees with Him

The late, great Bill Shankly once said, "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." It took a referee, a coach, a dispute and a bullet to prove his point.  

This isn't weird as much as it is tragic and awful, but in terms of rather insane and ill-advised officiating decisions, there is truly no equal. At a 2004 match in Kenton-on-Sea, South Africa, the altercation began with a yellow card on a player from Marcelle Club. Players, coaches and fans protested, and the argument quickly grew heated. When it looked like it was going to get out of hand, the referee pulled out a gun and shot the Marcelle coach. The coach died from his wound in the chest, and the same bullet also wounded two players. Police cited self-defense in his actions. 

And you thought that offside call was bad.