Did you know about the team that had been playing on a bomb? The way Maradona paid his tax bills in Italy? The time Diego shot at some reporters or the time a referee shot a player in the middle of a match?
In April 1995, a German bomb was discovered under a pitch that had been used for amateur football matches. Thousands of British players had been running over the top of the ticking time bomb and the discovery prompted Britain’s biggest peacetime bomb disposal operation. Over 4000 people from Portland near Dorset had to be temporarily evacuated as a bomb squad took several hours to defuse the discovery.
In September 2009 Argentine great Diego Maradona was spending time at a health clinic in Italy when police raided the ‘stress free’ environment due to an unpaid tax bill. Maradona had to hand over a diamond ear ring for unpaid taxes between 1984 and 1991 which was worth around 25,000 Euros. In 2006 he had to hand over two Rolex watches worth 10,000 Euros.
In 1994, Diego Maradona shot journalists and paparazzi with an air rifle outside his home in Argentina. The reporters and photographers relentlessly pursued Maradona when he left his home and TV footage of the incidents shows Maradona, along with some accomplices, shooting at the press pack with the rifle. He was found guilty of assault using a weapon.
In South Africa 1999 during a Hartbessfontein home match, a pitch invasion following a goal prompted a player to leave the field and return with a knife. As the player tried to attack the referee, the official pulled out a 9 mm pistol and shot the player point black in the chest. The referee refused to accept that he had caused the player’s death and the heavy unrest was apparently due to betting.
Source: Robert Lodge
Do you have any crazy football stories?
image: © 3336
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
