Algeria and Austria meet for only the second time in their history on Saturday (Sunday 6am UAE) in Kansas. The game will assume immense significance for what happened at the first meeting during the 1982 World Cup in Spain. And also how both teams face a similar situation all over again.
Football’s scheduling was changed forever after what German television called “the most shameful day in the history of our Football Federation”. It was match-fixing in its most unedifying form. Others in Germany referred to it as 'The Anschluss'.
This is what happened. In the opening round of matches at the 1982 finals in the northern city of Gijon, novices Algeria shocked European champions West Germany with a 2-1 win.
West Germany had won all eight qualifiers en route to the finals with a goals-for-against record of 33-3. They boasted stars like Paul Breitner, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Felix Magath and Uli Stielike. One player boasted before the game that: “We will dedicate our seventh goal to our wives, and the eighth to our dogs.”
Manager Jupp Derwall declared that if his team lost against Algeria then he would “jump on the first train back to Munich”. He had clearly not given that much thought because even today, Gijon to Munich by train requires seven changes and takes 51 hours.
The Algerians, about to play in their first World Cup, were watching.
“One player even said that he would play against us with a cigar in his mouth,” recalled Algeria full-back Chaabane Merzekane.
“Some of us wondered if this was just a psychological ploy, whether they were only saying these things to lull us into thinking that they weren’t going to take us seriously. After all, who has ever heard of a German team that doesn’t do its homework?”
But West Germany did lose. Lakhdar Belloumi, father of Hull City winger Mohamed, and Rabah Madjer scored. Belloumi was part of an attacking quartet with Madjer, Salah Assad and Mustapha Dahleb. All would play in the World Cup finals again; all would progress in European football.
Germany was stunned. Derwall, who hadn’t rushed to the station, admitted that he had been provided with a video of Algeria before the game but didn’t ask his players to watch it as they would have laughed at him.
Yet Algeria had quality. They had impressed in qualifying, during friendly wins over the Republic of Ireland, Real Madrid and Benfica. With Algerian players not allowed to move abroad until the age of 28, the team had played together for years.
Algeria lost their next match 2-0 to an Austria team which had prepared far better than the Germans. After two games, the four-team group standings read Austria on four points. West Germany and Algeria on two each, with Chile bottom of the table, having lost twice. The West Germans held a superior goal difference. Two teams would progress.
It was the scheduling that was ominous. On June 24, Algeria were to play Chile in Oviedo. Austria v West Germany was to be on the Friday afternoon in nearby Gijon. The two European neighbours would know what results would guarantee their progress. Algeria and Chile, who still had a small chance of qualifying if they won by a large scoreline, were both at a disadvantage.
Algeria went for it against Chile and led 3-0 after 34 minutes. Alarmingly, Algeria showed their inexperience by losing their nerve and authority in the second half as Chile pulled back two. The 3-2 win meant Algeria had a goal difference of zero, worse than Austria.
'What is happening here is disgraceful'
What happened in Gijon the following afternoon stank. Algeria would have become the first African team to reach the second round unless the game between West Germany and Austria ended in a one- or two-goal win for the Germans.
Austria could thus afford to lose by up to two goals and still join the Germans in the next phase at Algeria’s expense.
After 10 minutes, West Germany’s Horst Hrubesch scored from a Pierre Littbarski cross. From that point, the game slowed. Pace and urgency were reduced from both sides. So much for the Austrians being extra motivated against their neighbours.
At half-time, a German player approached an Austrian and put an arm around his shoulder. Was he reaffirming that both would go through if nothing changed?
The crowd became restless; they had not paid good money to see this. Some Algerians in the crowd waved banknotes through the pitchside fence of Gijon’s El Molinon stadium to show their suspicion of corruption of this mutually agreeable result.
There were only three shots – none on target – in the second half in which West Germany made only eight tackles. The last 10 minutes of the game have remained an affront to football, a ceasefire in football terms.
On British TV, commentator Hugh Johns concluded: “This is one of the most disgraceful international matches I’ve ever seen.” On one German channel, Eberhard Stanjek, said: “What is happening here is disgraceful and has nothing to do with football. You can say what you like, but not every end justifies the means.”
German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote that it “felt like the sinking of the Titanic”.
Spanish newspapers called it the ‘The Anschluss’ – the 1938 annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, cosying up to form a greater Germany.
Suggesting a sinister plot, the Algerian Federation lodged a complaint with Fifa for what would become known as ‘The Disgrace of Gijon’. To no avail. The German players were unashamed. They threw water bombs at fans who protested outside their team hotel.
Fifa did change the rules for future tournaments as a result. Matches deciding final league positions from then on started to take place simultaneously. But that was too late for the robbed Algerian team.
And the injustice still rankles as they face Austria 44 years later.
Yet history could come close to repeating itself. Both Algeria and Austria face a similar situation this week.
The teams are in second and third position – both on three points each – in Group J behind leaders Argentina. The team that finishes second is set to face Spain in the next round while the side that finishes third in the table will play against either Belgium or Egypt.
So, there could be a strong incentive for both teams to avoid victory in Kansas.
