Football's Most Violent Game?

Newsletter #12

Jul 30, 2024

Hello and welcome back to the most recent edition of The Overlap Newsletter! We’re not far away from the start of the season for the Championship, League One and League Two and Manchester United face Manchester City in the Community Shield on Saturday 10th August, kick off at 3pm. Journalist Rob Draper is back again this week to take a look at The Battle of Santiago - the 1962 FIFA World Cup between Italy and Chile. You can also listen to Rob and Jonathan Wilson take an in-depth look into the Battle of Santiago on our podcast It Was What It Was following the link below. Catch up on the latest episode of Stick To Football on The Overlap Youtube channel, as Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jill Scott and Ian Wright take on a quiz and reveal the rest of the room 101’s.

It Was What It Was

Quiz Question…

Who has won the most Community Shield titles?

Answer to follow at the end of the Newsletter…

By Rob Draper, co-host It Was What It Was

Standards have fallen, the game’s gone. Not 2024 but 1962. Most of the moral panic these days is about simulation, handball or VAR. Back then it was broken noses and actual violence, behaviour that would get you locked up if you repeated it outside a football stadium, that had pundits in a spin.

Characters such as Italy’s Humberto Maschio and Chile’s Leonel Sánchez made Roy Keane and Graeme Souness look lightweight wall flowers by comparison. This was an era when getting a free hit on a player might literally mean an actual punch.

All of which nicely sets up the Battle of Santiago, 1962, not a post colonial South American conflict between nation states but a World Cup group match described in fantastic detail by my colleague Jonathan Wilson in this week’s edition of It Was What It Was. Legendary BBC commentator David Coleman described it as “the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game.” And if that doesn’t entice you to listen, nothing will.

The bare details of the 1962 game are that the first foul came on 12 seconds and resulted in a melee between the players, which also included photographers and reporters who had encroached on the pitch and which English ref Ken Aston vainly attempted to control. During the altercation, Maschio punched Sánchez in the face, flooring him - but Aston, busy separating other players, failed to spot that.

The first actual red card was for Giorgio Ferrini in the eighth minute for launching a full-blooded kick at Honorino Landa. In keeping with the spirit of the game, he refused to go and had to be escorted form the pitch by police.

Only two players were sent off but, as is evident, it was quite hard to receive the ultimate football sanction in the 1960s. Sánchez, having been floored by Maschio, delivered a right hook direct on to the chin of Italy’s Mario David a few minutes later and Aston waved play on. When David, not unreasonably, tried to kick Sánchez in the head shortly after, he was sent off. In the ensuing confrontation between team-mates, Sánchez broke Maschio’s nose, still failing to get himself sent off. No VAR back then. Chile won 2-0 but the game will only ever be remembered for the violence.

Amusing though this all seems in retrospect, Coleman’s outrage is understandable in that football could have been heading down a route not unlike professional boxing today, whereby off-the-pitch issues threatened its credibility and ultimately its popularity.

It would take football time to get to grips with these issues as Pelé was kicked out of the 1966 World Cup by Bulgaria and Portugal, though he would have his revenge in 1970, when the beautiful game did flourish. Johan Cruyff and the Netherlands/Ajax side of the 1970s did their bit to keep the flame alive but the scars on Diego Maradona’s legs indicated that in the 1980s and for much of the 1990s, the balance was still often too weighted in favour of bruisers over ballers.

It was watching the sublime Marco van Basten retiring at the age of 28 that had brought football to its senses and the most-significant change came in 1998 when the tackle from behind was banned, becoming an immediate red card offence. It was predictably met with much grumbling in the UK, where it was viewed as a key feature of the game.

Cristiano Ronaldo made his debut for Sporting Lisbon in 2002 and Lionel Messi for Barcelona in 2004. It isn’t mere coincidence that this era has allowed us to enjoy two of the all-time greats over 20 years. Football’s laws contrived to create the opportunity. Both those players may well feel their treatment has been brutal at times. But hearing about the Battle of Santiago will provide valuable perspective.

Stick To Football Euros - Behind The Scenes