Blood shoots Nestor Combin from a wound just below the eye and leaves dark red spots on his white cotton jersey. Half unconscious, he lies on the sidelines in the stadium La Bombonera, the "box of chocolates" of Buenos Aires. In his ears the screaming and clapping of 45,000 spectators. Domingo Massaro bends over him now. The Chilean referee has long since lost control and asks Combin to stand up so that the game can continue.
It is October 22, 1969, in the World Cup final, the Argentine Estudiantes de La Plata compete against AC Milan. For Milan storms Nestor Combin, 28, native Argentine. He can not stand up anymore. Yoke and nose bone are broken, battered by his opponents Alberto Poletti and Ramon Aguirre Suárez, who act on this day as in a football war (just months after a tie between El Salvador and Honduras led to a real war).
Combin faints, helpers drag him on a stretcher into the catacombs - where he is arrested by two police officers for conscientious objection. As ugly as on this day, the tenth World Cup final in history, football has never been.
Downcast and spit on
Not even in 1966, when the drama in the box of chocolates had its starting point: After England won the quarter-finals, national coach Alf Ramsey stunned the members of the Argentine trio as "animals" and laid the foundation for a long-standing enmity between Argentine and European teams ,
Not even in 1967, when Celtic Glasgow and Racing Club from Buenos Aires fought a total of five places in the decisive third game of the World Cup final in Montevideo. Just before kick-off, the referee had been hit by a bottle thrown out of the audience.
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1969 scandal game: "A 90-minute manhunt"And not in 1968, when Estudiantes and Manchester United wanted to find out who is the best club team on the planet. Carlos Bilardo, who later became the coach of Argentina's national team for the world title in 1986, occurred in the midfield mercilessly around. Above all, United coach Matt Busby said his players were in mortal danger "as soon as they held the ball for a few seconds."
Already in the first leg was Nobby Stiles, since the World Cup victory in 1966 notorious even as "Hard Man", persistent with kicks, punches and head butts, until he himself briefly lost his composure and - irony of the game - was sent off. In the return match in Manchester, the British presented hard, but not fair: Given the impending defeat and certainly also out of frustration over the playing of the opponent beat United superstar George Best his counterparty José Hugo Medina first and then spat at him.
Warm Up Program: Shoot enemies
"Estudiantes' road to success: intimidating and destroying," found the newspaper Guardian. This was also the case in 1969. The Milan side had won the first leg 3-0 and now wanted to defend their lead at La Bombonera. In an intercontinental comparison, the "students" from La Plata played anything but academic.
As for their passion for football, Argentinians are not normal. The series of bitches began long before the kick-off: Already when entering the stadium, the ecstatic audience threw coins and hot coffee at the Italians. Estudiant's warm-up program was to shoot down the guests with balls. What the shocked Milanese could not know: Before the match, the Argentine footballers had received a visit from representatives of the military. They proclaimed the slogan of the day - "wins or dies".
That's what goalkeeper Alberto Poletti said in 2005. And he caused after 30 minutes for the first negative climax: After his opening goal Milans superstar Gianni Rivera was knocked down several times by Poletti. Shortly thereafter Rivera's strike partner Pierino Prati had to be replaced after a brutal duel with concussion. Intimidating and destroying - at least in this first half Estudiantes was successful, at the break it was 2: 1 for the hosts.
Even after the restart, the Argentinians had more foam in their mouths than gold in the foot. "When they realized that they would not defend their title, they distributed punches and kicks as soon as the referee turned around," reported Milan right-back Angelo Sormani, "it was a massacre like I've never experienced before." For Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, the German in the service of the Italians, these 90 minutes were "the most terrible of my life." Against everything that moved, the Argentinians kicked and punched.
"90-minute manhunt"
The main target was Nestor Combin, born to French immigrants in Las Rosas. He was stigmatized as a "traitor" because he left Argentina at the age of 19, adopted French nationality and even denied eight games for the Equipe Tricolore.
However, it remained in 2: 1, in the overall balance won AC Milan. Instead of an award ceremony, the Argentine officials thundered the trophy on the tiles of the guest cabin. Combin was officially arrested and treated in hospital; Italians and Frenchmen protested against his arrest. After two days, Combin was released and flown to Milan. The haunting was over.
This dirty game paid tribute to Argentine and Italian media later as "Bombonera massacre" or "90-minute manhunt", the image of the World Cup was badly damaged. Instigated by international outrage, Argentina's dictator Onganía called for harsh sentences. Ramón Aguirre Suárez was suspended for 30 games, goalkeeper Poletti life-long, he also had to jail for a month. Both locks were later reversed.
Only a year later Estudiantes de La Plata was again in the final of the World Cup, this time against Feyenoord Rotterdam. The first leg led by East German referee Rudi Glöckner in Buenos Aires ended 2: 2, the second leg decided wearer Joop van Daele in the 65th minute with the 1-0 in favor of the Dutch. He paid for the hit with the loss of his visual aid: opponent Oscar Malbernat tore his glasses from his face and worked them with the stud shoe.
The crushed glasses are now in the Feyenoord Museum. A reminder of the years of intimidation and destruction.
You have to be eleven ruffians: cruel stabs, handles into the realm and manners from another star - the kick troupe of football. Click on the face or name of the footballer below to learn more.
