Ten great controversies from the world of sport

Ten great controversies from the world of sport to sit alongside the underarm incident

1 - John McEnroe's entire career

The longest running tantrum in sport.

The late Arthur Ashe suggested McEnroe blew fuses because he was a bored genius. But those meltdowns came from a deeper place. He smashed a tray of drinks and screamed "answer the question, jerk" to an umpire in Stockholm and told an American umpire "you're not just hurting me, you're hurting your entire country" when he was Davis Cup captain. For the full Mac Attack, try Google and set aside half a day.

He screamed his way out of winning more than the seven Grand Slam singles titles he nabbed.

You couldn't condone it ... yet it was hard not to like the geeky music-loving guy with hair by Art Garfunkel, temperament by Elton John. Maybe it was the insane honesty that was the attraction. And man, could he play.

Now superbrat is a superb commentator - but hold on. Is that the sound of someone having a smashing time on a back court? Sure is. McEnroe is still at it, hurling abuse and smacking tennis balls at people on the seniors tour. 


2 - Geoff Hurst's 1966 World Cup final goal

Hurst scored three, but the other two hardly get mentioned compared with the strike that gave England a 3-2 lead over Germany at Wembley. The ball crashed off the underside of the bar, landed near the line and set off endless disputes about the legitimacy of the goal that took England to World Cup glory.

Oxford University studied film of the goal for six weeks in 1995 then announced: "A vertical line passing through the ball gives a locus of points for the possible projection on to the ground plane. Two views provide two such lines with the intersection of the lines being the required projection." They also concluded the ball failed to cross the line by 7cm.

Hurst became so famous he sold his match shirt for £80,000. He hasn't got a clue if the ball went in. Swiss ref Gottfried Dienst spent years waving questioners away.

Was it a goal? Of course. You could read about it the next day and for 40 more years.


3 - Diego Maradona's hand of God

Four extraordinary minutes in Argentina's 1986 World Cup quarter-final against England in Mexico drive the debate about how to regard Maradona, a genius who danced around defenders ... and with the devil.

He put England through soccer misery. He not only punched the ball over goalkeeper Peter Shilton into the net but mocked England by claiming his head and God's hand had combined for the goal.

Four minutes after that hand goal, Maradona scored the greatest individual World Cup goal, beating a queue of defenders to finish England off.

Maradona removed God from the scoresheet in his 2002 biography.

"Bollocks was it the hand of God. It was the hand of Diego," he stated, adding three more body parts into the argument.

Just last year, Maradona suggested the goal was payback for Britain's Falklands War victory. Hero or villain? Plenty of both probably.

4 - The 1972 Olympic basketball final

A bunch of Olympic silver medals still lie unclaimed at IOC headquarters in Switzerland. The United States team refused to accept them after the Munich final, where the Soviet Union inflicted the first Olympic defeat on the seven-time champs.

This is the only Olympic final where you can find separate photographs of both teams wildly celebrating winning gold. The Americans got to celebrate twice and still lost.

With one second left and the US leading by a point, chaos arrived via a disputed time out.

The clock was twice reset to three seconds and the Soviets went the length of the court to score. The committee hearing America's appeal voted on East-West lines in the Soviet's favour.

There was an enlightened sequel. Years later, the American players' spokesman Ken Davis said what was portrayed as a US basketball tragedy lost significance next to the killing of Israeli athletes by terrorists at Munich. 


5 - Shoeless Joe Jackson gets slugged at the world series

There are still campaigns in America to reinstate Shoeless Joe, who with seven other Chicago White Sox was banned for throwing the 1919 series against Cincinnati.

The statistics suggested the illiterate Jackson played no part in the betting fix, although he did know about it.


6 - Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan figure-this-out skating

Harding found infamy when a bunch of losers, including her ex-husband, had American rival Kerrigan clubbed on the knee in 1994. How sophisticated. Harding was only convicted of covering up the crime but her reputation was savaged.


7 - Muhammad Ali and the ripped glove (Henry Cooper gets ripped off)

Lovable Englishman Henry Cooper unleashed his famous left hammer to deck Ali (still Cassius Clay) in London in 1963. Ali was saved by the bell, then his trainer Angelo Dundee stole precious recovery minutes by ripping his boxer's glove. Ali's win set up the history turning title fight with Sonny Liston, and Cooper dined out on the Ali knockdown for years.


8 - Zola Budd and Mary Decker-Slaney's tangled wreck

Budd, the teenage barefoot sensation from outcast South Africa, was fast-tracked into the British team. In the 1984 3000m Olympic final at Los Angeles, she tangled with another favourite, Decker-Slaney, who crashed out in tears. A blame debate raged with the American ungracious and Budd - who struggled home seventh - conciliatory.


9 - Hansie Cronje - Mr fix-it exposed as a fixer

He was once seen as the toughest of fighters at the heart of South Africa's climb back into international cricket. But in 2000, Cronje was revealed as a match fixer in the pay of gamblers. He blamed Satan but was banned for life. Cronje died in a 2002 plane crash, and the tributes poured in.


10 - Ben Johnson runs last

Stripped of his 1988 Olympics 100m gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Certainly not a lone drug cheat, but the most famous. Offended again and got banned for life. Last seen in a race against two horses and a stock car and reportedly out-run by a pick pocket in Rome.