The Football World Cup is often dubbed 'the greatest show on earth.' With the whole world on its knees for about a month, the World Cup has produced countless memorable events, some of which are downright hilarious and make the fans giggle even to this day.
While the FIFA World Cup 2022 is knocking at the door, here are some funny incidents from the previous World Cups.
Jimmy Greaves catching a dog
Dogs entering football fields is not common, but it happened during the 1962 World Cup Quarter Finals between England and Brazil. Jimmy Greaves, the Chelsea and Tottenham legend, caught a stray dog by hilariously jumping, which remains one of the most comical events in the World Cup Finals.
Sabella's awkward slip
Alejandro Sabella was one of the most talked-about managers during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, as he almost clinched the World Cup for the Argentines. However, when Argentina faced Belgium in the quarterfinals, the now-deceased Argentine coach had a truly hilarious moment.
After the ball hit the crossbar, Sabella was seen leaning awkwardly behind, where he was almost about to fall before being caught by a staff member.
A third yellow card
It's common knowledge among football lovers that two yellow cards translate to a red card; however, in the 2006 World Cup match between Croatia and Australia, a big blunder was made by referee Graham Poll when he allowed Josip Simunic to continue after two yellow cards and finally sent him off after the third.
Hilarious acting by Rivaldo
Rivaldo is rightly known to be one of the greatest forwards to ever come out of Brazil. However, his acting skills are not quite as bad.
In the 2002 World Cup game against Turkey, Brazil got a corner. Rivaldo was the corner taker and asked the Turkish player, Hakan Unsal, to give him the ball. Unsal kicked the ball to him, which hit him on the leg. Rivaldo, however, pretended the ball hit him in the face and fell to the ground. The referee fell for it and sent Unsal off.
The Rudi Völler-Frank Rijkaard incident
This hilarious yet unexpected incident occurred during the second-round match between West Germany and the Netherlands during the 1990 FIFA World Cup, when the Dutch defensive Rijkaard spat on his hair after being booked for a tackle on the German striker Völler, believing the booking was irrational. They made up with each other later and posed for an advertisement together.
Strange German free-kick vs Algeria
The second-round game between Algeria and Germany in the 2014 FIFA World Cup was memorable in many ways, but the awkward free kick taken by Germany where Thomas Muller fell intentionally to sneak past the Algerian defence is probably remembered by all the football fans. However, he failed to score a goal that way.
