Football: It's a funny old game

[CJ]

The phrase 'football's a funny old game' gets used all the time but in this case, it really does hold true.

 

You are about to read possibly the most bizarre and craziest end to a football match ever. It was a game played between Barbados and Greneda in the Shell Caribbean Cup in 1994.

 

Going into the last game of the group stages, Barbados needed to beat Greneda by two clear goals to qualify for the finals. Anything less than that and Greneda would progress with a draw resulting in extra-time and golden goal.

 

It's seems simple enough at the moment. But then, for someone unknown reason, the organisers decided that in this particular situation, if it was a draw then the scorers of the golden goal would be awarded a 2 goal win.

 

Barbados raced into a 2-0 lead before Greneda pulled it back to 2-1 with seven minutes remaining.

 

The Bajans were heading out of the competition unless they scored a goal to make it 3-1 or if the scores were to become level, which would give themselves a chance of going though via golden goal in extra time.

 

There followed the farcical situation of Bajans smashing the ball past their own keeper to score the equaliser, hoping it would then stay for that for the remainder of the match so they could go into golden goal.

 

Of course, the Grenedians kicked off and had three minutes to score a goal, any would do.

 

If they scored they won 3-2 and if they conceded they would lose 3-2 but still qualify. As a result, the Bajans then divided their players and proceeded to defend both their own and their opponents goal lines to stop the Grenedians scoring at either end.

 

They managed to achieve this, taking the game to extra time and just four minutes in Barbados scored the golden goal to start wild celebrations in the National Stadium in Bridgetown.

 

As you would expect, afterwards the Grenedian coach was livid with what had just happened, saying: "I feel cheated, the person who came up with these rules must be a candidate for the madhouse. The game should never be played with the players so confused, our players did not even know which direction to attack. Our goal or theirs."