There’s nothing like falling down the rabbit hole of a good conspiracy theory to help pass the time – and the world of football is full of them.
Whether you believe them or not, reading conspiracy theories is always good fun. We personally recommend looking up The Dyatlov Pass and Yuba County Five if you have a spare tinfoil hat.
Reddit user ‘blueballs’ kicked off a thread discussing the best football conspiracy theories. We’ve rounded up some of the best, excluding the incredibly libellous sections sadly.
Ronaldo at France 98
Kicking off with a stone-cold classic, Ronaldo was at the peak of his powers as the most exciting footballer in the world in 1998 and took the World Cup by storm, scoring four times and providing three assists to fire Brazil to the final against hosts France and subsequently collect the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player.
But just hours before the final was set to take place, the striker suffered a seizure and was initially excluded from Brazil’s starting XI in the team sheet submitted to match officials. He was later restored to the XI but was ineffective as France triumphed 3-0.
Theories ranged from suggestions Ronaldo had been drugged to Brail accepting bribes in return for the rights to host the 2006 World Cup. But the conspiracy theory that stuck accused Nike, who paid a record £105million to sponsor the team, of forcing the 21-year-old to play.
Desailly and Thuram discuss how to stop Ronaldo, ahead of the World Cup Final in 1998.
Desailly would later say that, during his time at AC Milan, Ronaldo was the only player who scared Maldini – “He said ‘you have to stay around me—I need your help. You have to stay close.” pic.twitter.com/aXX0hpXyF2
— MUNDIAL (@MundialMag) July 16, 2019
Lasagnegate
A series of events so remarkable we dedicated a whole podcast to the episode. Spurs were set to pip Arsenal to fourth spot on the final day of the 2005-06 season, needing to match Arsenal’s result against Wigan Athletic in their own fixture with West Ham.
But their preparations descended into farce when the majority of their squad were awoken on the eve of the match with suspected food poisoning from a dodgy lasagna.
Arsenal’s squad were conveniently staying at a nearby hotel, prompting accusations of foul play, while Jermain Defoe pointed the finger at his former club, telling FourFourTwo in 2017: “I thought, ‘Something has definitely gone on here – one of the West Ham lads has…
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