Football: The Knowledge: football's greatest injustices

"What makes Graham Taylor's inane punditry on Five Live all the more annoying is that his voice continually reminds me of that outrageous night in Rotterdam when Ronald Koeman chopped down David Platt as he was about to score. Koeman wasn't sent off and went on to notch one of the goals that prevented England from going to the 1994 World Cup," hollers a still-bitter Lee Mariner. "That got me thinking that other countries must nurture long-held grievances about terrible refereeing decisions. Any chance you could run through them?"

There are two shocking things about your email, Lee: (1) you somehow managed not to mention Diego Maradona's first goal against your beloved England in 1986, and (2) you seem to think that in a single article we can catalogue all the whinges and whines that make planet football go round. However, grumbling is fun, so let's make a start.

Firstly, let's remind England fans that in that infamous match in Rotterdam the Dutch were also denied by shoddy officiating: Frank Rijkaard had a goal chalked off in the first half for a non-existent offside. Also, let's not forget that England have also benefited from a hand of God-style scandal: they qualified for Euro 92 at the expense of the Republic of Ireland ultimately after Dennis Wise marked his first cap for his country by punching the ball into the net to give England a 1-0 win over Turkey in Izmir.

At least that gave Irish fans something new to moan about: until then their biggest gripe had been the manner in which they missed out on the 1982 World Cup. They lost a qualifier in Paris after France scored from apenalty awarded after the Spanish referee penalised Kevin Moran for heading theball clear, apparently in the belief that the centre-back had punched it; butLiam Brady and Co. could still have reached Spain if they'd got a result in theHeysel Stadium, where Belgium beat them 1-0, but only after Frank Stapelton hada trademark headed goal ruled out for reasons that were never explained.

Subsequent international success for the Irish has, of course, diluted thosebitter memories, but the same can't be said for Wales fans, who've had nothingto help them get over the injustice that cost them a place in the 1978 WorldCup. In the crucial qualifier against Scotland at, of all places, Anfield, JoeJordan handled the ball in the Welsh box and the referee - mistaking theScottish striker's hand for that of a Welsh defender - awarded the Scots apenalty. Donald Masson duly converted it, Scotland went to Argentina and thesound of Welsh sobbing was punctuated only by violent swearing.

Speaking of Argentina: they famously exited the 1966 finals after being beaten by hosts England in a match in which their captain, Antonio Rattin, was sent off for "violence of the tongue" by a referee who didn't understand any Spanish. Argentinian fans also like pointing out that Brazil have benefited from plenty of dodgy decisions throughout their history. The great Garrincha, for example, was only able to play in the 1962 World Cup final because Fifa mysteriously decided not to suspend him for getting sent off in the semi-final against Chile, when he was red carded for the not insignificant offence of delivering a powerful forearm smash to a defender's face.

Earlier in the tournament, Brazil had beaten Spain 2-1 after the Spanish had a brilliant overhead kick goal bizarrely disallowed. Fast forward 24years to Mexico 86 and Brazil again beat Spain in controversial circumstances,elegant Spanish midfielder Michel firing the Spaniards into the lead only forthe referee to judge - incorrectly - that the ball hadn't crossed the line. Andto rub salt into Spanish wounds, Socrates was clearly offside when he nodded inthe game's only allowed goal.

Poor old Spain. They really don't have much luck in major finals. They were dumped out of USA 94 by Italy after Mauro Tassotti somehow escaped conceding a penalty for a vicious elbow on Luis Enrique in the box - the fact that Tassotti was subsequently banned for eight games was of no consolation to Spain. Then in 2002, they were knocked out on penalties by hosts South Korea: but the Spaniards should have won in normal time, when Fernando Morientes had two goals wrongly disallowed, including one scored from a Joaquin cross only for the officials to disallow it on the absurd grounds that the ball had gone out of play before Joaquin's delivery when it quite clearly hadn't.

In the previous round, of course, South Korea had eliminated Italy thanks to some equally extraordinary decisions. Damiano Tomassi had a goal disallowed for offside even though he was comfortably on. Franceso Totti was sent off for diving even though he had in fact been fouled in the box. And so on.

Still, perhaps that made up for the 1982 World Cup, which Italy won even though they should have been knocked out in the first round: if Roger Milla had not had a perfectly good goal disallowed against Peru (for an offside that wasn't even close to existing in reality), Cameroon would have progressed from Group A at the expense of the eventual champions. Cameroon didn't fare much better in France 98, when, needing to beat Chile to progress to the second round, François Omam-Biyik had two goals controversially disallowed in a 1-1 group draw.

El Salvador were equally enraged back in 1974 when Mexico launched agoal-scoring attack after taking a free-kick that had, in fact, been awarded tothe Salvadorans: they protested so hard that the only way the Egyptian refereecould shut them up was to blow for half-time early. Mexico went on to win 4-0.

But back to Brazil: it's worth mentioning that even they have fallen foul ofinfuriating officials. In 1978 they were denied top spot in their group whenWelsh ref Clive Thomas blew for full-time at the precise moment that Zico'sheader was crossing the line for what would have been a match-winning winninggoal against Sweden. The disbelieving samba boys had to settle for 1-1.

An equally infamous refereeing decision came in the 1982 semi-final, whenDutch ref Charles Gover failed to even tell off - let alone send off - WestGerman goalkeeper Harald Schumacher for knocking France centre-back PatrickBattiston unconscious with a savage challenge outside his box; not only did thepermtastic hatchetkeeper prevent a clear goalscoring chance, he went on toeliminate the French by saving two penalties in the subsequent shoot-out.

We could also mention that USA were denied a place in the 2002 semi-final because the ref somehow failed to spot Torsten Frings keeping out Gregg Berhalter's shot with his hand; or - our favourite - that Uzbekistan were denied the chance to play-off against Trinidad and Tobago for a place at the 2006 World Cup after Fifa ruled that the first leg of the final Asian qualifier between Uzbekistan and Bahrain had to be replayed because of a mistake made during the game by Japanese referee Toshimitsu Yoshida - even though losers Bahrain had actually benefited from the mistake (Uzbekistan had scored a penalty but the referee disallowed it because of encroachment, and rather than order it to be re-taken, which is what he should have done, he gave Bahrain an indirect free-kick). But you've probably gathered by now that every country in the world can find a reason to blame officials for their own disappointments. Except perhaps Scotland.

LOST IN TRANSLATION (2)

Last week we looked at the way English team nicknames are used and translated in the French, Italian, German and Spanish press. Since then you lot have been clogging our inbox with many more examples from around the world, as well as pointing out some of the reporting quirks of our own national press.

Al Jennings informs us that in Slovenia commentators use both original and translated nicknames ('Gunners' becomes 'topnicarji' and 'Red Devils' becomes 'rdeci vragi', if you're interested). They also follow the German lead of attaching cities to team names at random (eg Londonski Arsenal), a habit which, Simon Gill informs us, also exists in the Czech Republic, where 'Arsenal Londýn' and 'Liverpoolský Everton' are particularly prevalent. In Israel, meanwhile, Gill reckons nicknames are translated where the Hebrew equivalent is common ('The Reds' becomes 'Ha'Adumim', and 'The Hammers' becomes 'Hapatishim'), but not where the original nickname is obscure, like "The Trotters". Bizarrely Everton are known as "HaMillionairim " - the Millionaires. According to Dave Hagan, the Toffeemen also have a novel nickname in Greece - "efoplistes", which means "the Ship Owners".

In Hong Kong nicknames are used in their original form, according to Jonathan Ng, though again there is a tendency to simply make monikers up. "Chelsea are known as 'The Little Car'," says Jonathan. "Because the Chinese transliteration of the team name begins with a word pronounced as Chia which literally means car." The Dutch press, on the other hand, try to avoid using any nickname other than Arsenal's. "Every editor will try to sneak in 'The Gunners' at least twice in an article," claims Nick. "Whether a general adoration for Dennis Bergkamp has anything to do with that, I don't know."

American hacks, perhaps unsurprisingly, get very confused when talking soccer. "Some sportswriters don't know how to refer to teams without nicknames, or with nicknames that are used differently to the ones they are used to," says Mike Murphy "The most frequent error I have seen involves Tottenham, who are often referred to as 'The Spurs', much like the NBA's San Antonio Spurs."

The same could be said the other way, however. "Even the Guardian sometimes makes mistakes when referring to American clubs," continues Mike. "I have often seen articles omit the "the" prior to LA, saying for instance: 'Beckham signs with LA Galaxy' instead of 'Beckham signs with the LA Galaxy'." Similarly, as many of you noted, plenty of English journalists continue to call Internazionale "Inter Milan" - pretty much the same as calling Arsenal "Arsenal London". Stephen Douglas also points out that we should really know Bayern Munich by a different name. "Munich is the English word for the city called Munchen in Germany," says Stephen. "However, Bayern is the German word for what the English call Bavaria, the German state where Munich is located. By all rights, we should call them either Bavaria Munich or Bayern Munchen."

Got an explanation for any of the above mysteries? Let us know at knowledge@guardian.co.uk

EVERY LOSER WINS

"A friend told me that Ajax won the Dutch Cup in 1970 despite being knocked out in an earlier round," says Gavin Murray. "Is this true?"

Sure is. Ajax were beaten in the round of 16 by AZ Alkmaar, but there were actually only 14 teams left in the competition at that stage, so one of the seven losers got the gift of a quarter-final place. It was Ajax, and they went on to win the cup after beating PSV 2-0 in the final.

Ajax are not the only losers to win, of course. Nick Berry did with his seminal 1987 ballad, and Denmark won Euro 92 despite not actually qualifying for the tournament - they were included at the last minute when Yugoslavia were forced to pull out. Anyone got any more lucky losers? If so, you know the drill

THE MOST CLOSED-OFF CUP COMPETITION IN THE WORLD?

"With another dream FA Cup final (sic) looming, I was wondering: when was the last time a club outside the big four [sic] won the FA Cup," asks Scott Monks.

It was 1995, when a Neville Southall-inspired Everton held off Manchester United to win 1-0 in the Wembley rain thanks to an early goal from Paul Rideout. The 11 finals since then have been won by Arsenal (4), Man Utd (3), Chelsea (2) and Liverpool (2). And not since Wimbledon in 1988 has a club outside this year's top six (the big four plus Tottenham and Everton) won the competition.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

"Could you help me settle a bet?" asked Mike Burkimsher, back in 2003. "As we all know, Robbie Fowler is now rubbish but he was once quite good. In how many seasons did he score 15 or more Premiership goals? The bet is it's not even three."

After much painstaking counting, checking, re-checking, getting it completely wrong and then amending it, we can confirm that Robbie Fowler has definitely scored 15 or more Premiership goals in four different seasons. In 1994-95 the cheeky Scally bagged 24 goals (or was it 25? A bit contentious this one, but either way it's more than 15), and followed it in 1995-96 with a whopping 28, followed by 18 in 1996-97. In 1998-99 he was one shy with 14, a situation he rectified - but only just - by scoring exactly 15 Premiership goals in the 2001-02 season.

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