This article has been copied and printed from World Soccer magazine.

1961:GREEN CROSS PLANE DISASASTER

A plane crash in the Las Lastimas mountains in Chile accounted for 24 players from the Green Cross team of Santiago. Four years later the club, which was founded in 1916, merged with Deportes Temuco and was renamed Green Cross Temuco.

Members of Chilean team Green Cross, several of whom died in the 1961 plane crash


1962:BATTLE OF SANTIAGO

England's Ken Aston was the referee for this unsavoury encounter between World Cup hosts Chile and Italy. The first foul, and subsequent booking, came after just 12 seconds. Eight minutes later the culprit, Giorgio Ferrini of Italy, had been sent off. Chile's Leonel Sanchez then produced a left hook to floor Italy's Humberto Maschio, but amazingly he stayed on the pitch. However, he got his come-uppance a few minutes later when his neck met Mario David's studs. The Italian was instantly dismissed and so it went on, until Chile eventually won 2-0 against nine-man Italy

Image source: t-online.de


1964:SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY BETTING SCANDAL

Sheffield Wednesday players Tony Kay, David Layne and Peter Swan were caught up in the biggest betting scandal to hit English football. In December 1962 they bet on their side to lose a match against Ipswich Town. The three were acting on the instigation of former Everton player Jimmy Gauld, who eventually sold his story to a Sunday tabloid, framing the three Wednesday players in the process. All four were imprisoned and banned from football for life.

Image spurce: Goal.com


1964:RIOT IN LIMA

More than 300 supporters were killed and another 500 injured following the decision by the referee to disallow a Peru goal with only a few minutes left to play in their Olympic Games qualifier against Argentina. The enraged home fans went crazy at the decision and many people were trampled on in the ensuing stampede. The lack of security and poor crowd control seemed to escalate the trouble. It is one of the worst disasters the game has witnessed.

Youths carrying a boy Image source: BBO


1966:PELE KICKED OUT OF WORLD CUP

Pele went into the 1966 competition far from fit and the opposition took advantage. In the first game, against Bulgaria, he was on the receiving end of some coarse challenges. Despite scoring and helping Brazil to a 2-0 win, Pele missed the second match due to injury. He returned for the final group game against Portugal but had not fully recovered and his opponents targeted him, virtually kicking him and Brazil, out of the tournament.

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