By While football is considered the most popular sport in the world, there’ve been a whole lot of scandals involving football, and since this is a sport that attracts a lot of attention and generates plenty of money, it is quite understandable to have its adequate share of scandals.
Nevertheless, not all football players are involved in scandals. Some players have outstanding virtues and are role models to many football fans, while some footballers are surrounded by one scandal after another, creating an embarrassing situation not only for themselves but for those around them as well.
Indeed there are many scandals surrounding the sport and its players from fixing matches, to affairs, sex scandals, drugs, and so on.
So today, we have listed the top 5 scandals that every fan needs to know about.
5. Adrian Mutu Doping Controversy at Chelsea
In August 2003, Adrian Mutu the Fiorentina striker was signed by Chelsea from Parma for £15.8 million. After spending Just over a year of his time at Stamford Bridge, Mutu was bogged down in tons of scandals when he was caught using cocaine.
It didn’t take long for his suspension notice to be out in the public and he was later traded by the club. He was asked to pay a huge sum of £14.6 million after he was traded under involuntary events by the Blues.
The official Fiorentina website statement read, “Nine-month ban for Adrian Mutu – this is the decision taken by the anti-doping tribunal regarding the positive test for the substance sibutramine by the Viola player. The ban will end on 29 October 2010.”
The statement continued: “The Viola player had been suspended since 29 January after the positive tests following the game against Bari on 10 January and Lazio on 20 January in the Italian Cup.”
4. Israel national squad after an 8-0 loss spent a steamy night with prostitutes
The Israel National Squad invited prostitutes for enjoyment purposes after being completely hammered by Denmark an 8-0 loss in the initial round of the European playoffs. Due to the team’s extreme actions, their head coach Shlomo Schraf also stepped down from his role.
Not only that but the squad members had also brought in call girls before the game in Copenhagen. The squad’s manager Schraf was beyond disappointed and stunned to learn such bad news and action from the players. The damage would have been very bad if he chose to resign.
3. The shocking murder of Andres Escobar
On July 2, 1994, in very shocking news, Colombian defender Andres Escobar known by his nickname as “Gentleman of the Field” was unalived just over a week after the squad was eliminated from the World Cup after he accidentally scored an own goal against the United States on June 22, 1994. Many believed that it was that very reason why he was murdered. Reportedly, he was shot six times in the head by drug traffickers’ brothers Pedro and Santiago Gallon. With each shot, they shouted “goal” to the lifeless body of Escobar.
2. Diego Maradona’s Doping Addiction
The Argentine star player Diego Maradona may be known as one of the greatest players in football history but his career was badly affected to some extent due to his massive cocaine addiction. He also began to suffer from health complications at a young age and had to go into rehabilitation to keep himself away from addiction. Maradona if not for his addiction would have been a far better player and though he was still on drugs he still brought many laurels to his home country Argentina.
1. Brazil’s World Cup: 2014 Controversy
There is no denying the fact that Brazil encountered hardships in hosting the World Cup 2014, and back then it was a big challenge for them to meet the deadline with complete structures for the biggest event. The Brazilian government in general was charged with many severe corruptions and about six ministers had to resign because of the corruption scandal that broke out and shook the entire nation.
The citizens of the nation have been undergoing issues of corruption for many, many years now, and it’s time for the government to take strict action against this.
