After a strange altercation involving a razor blade, FIFA once disqualified a nation from the World Cup.
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico has ‘barred’ two teams.
FIFA suspended the Congolese football federation earlier this year, while Russia was suspended before the qualifying started because of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Although Congo’s federation withdrawn the squad from their remaining games, they were not barred from World Cup qualification.
In the meanwhile, third-party intervention led to the suspension of Pakistan’s football organisation. However, the punishment was soon overturned because they had already been disqualified from Asian qualification.
However, they are not the only teams that have ever been disqualified from the World Cup; South Africa and Yugoslavia have both been disqualified for various political reasons.
In contrast, Chile was deeply entangled in scandal in 1989 following an incident involving goalie Roberto Rojas.
Orlando Aravena’s team knew they needed to win to lead their group going into their last South American qualifying match versus Brazil.
With the exception of Argentina, which won in 1986, South American countries were divided into three qualifying groups prior to the World Cup. The top two teams in each group were guaranteed a spot in the 1990 competition in Italy.
However, Careca of Napoli gave Chile the lead over Brazil in the Maracana.
They were still behind by one goal going into the last twenty-five minutes of the match, when all of a sudden, everything changed.
Roberto Rojas, the goalie for Chile, collapsed to the ground and was shown bleeding from his head.
The 32-year-old said he was hurt by a flare that the Brazilian supporters threw. After that, the contest was abandoned.
However, things were not as they looked.
Following interrogation by CONMEBOL officials, Rojas finally acknowledged that the bleeding was caused by a razor blade he had concealed in one of his gloves and used to cut himself.
Additionally, he said that Chile coach Aravena had requested that he and team physician Daniel Rodriguez remain on the field in order to force Brazil to be disqualified or to play a third game on neutral territory.
After the inquiry, FIFA ruled that Brazil had won 2-0 and disqualified Chile from the 1994 World Cup, however this was only because the game had been called off.
The event was Rojas’ last deed as a professional football player, and he was given a lifelong ban from the game.
Although Rojas was 43 when the suspension was lifted in 2001, he later accepted a coaching position at Sao Paulo, the Brazilian powerhouse that he was playing for at the time of the notorious incident.
Although the goalie has not made any public remarks regarding his actions since an interview with a Chinese television channel in 1990, The Scotsman reports that he still resides there as of 2014.
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