El Maracanazo (1990 FIFA World Cup qualification)

Background

For the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) received 3.5 berths (including Argentina who already qualified as title holders). The other teams were grouped into 3 groups. The winners of the Groups 1 and 3 qualified directly to the World Cup, while the winner of Group 2 had to play an intercontinental play-off against the winner of Oceania's qualifying. Chile, Venezuela and Brazil were assigned to Group 3.

In the qualifiers, Chile beat Venezuela 3–1 in Caracas, drew 1–1 with Brazil in Santiago and beat Venezuela 5–0 in Mendoza, Argentina as FIFA banned Chile from playing at home due to crowd trouble against Brazil. With both teams due to play each other, Chile and Brazil were leading the group with 5 points each although Brazil were top on goal difference. This meant Chile needed to beat the home team Brazil to qualify.

The match

After a goalless first half, Careca of Brazil scored the only goal in the 49th minute. In the 67th minute, Chilean goalkeeper Roberto Rojas fell into the ground, pretending to be hurt by a flare thrown by the Brazilian fans. Immediately the Chilean players, led by Fernando Astengo, left the pitch in protest while Argentinian referee Juan Carlos Loustau unsuccessfully tried to convince them to continue with the game. While Rojas was being seen to, Patricio Yáñez made an obscene gesture to the Brazilian fans by grabbing his genitals. This gesture was later known in Chile as pato Yáñez.

The next day, television images and several photos revealed that the flare thrown by Brazilian fans didn't fall on the supposedly affected player, but landed just over one metre (3.3 ft) away. With that evidence, CONMEBOL managers considered unacceptable Rojas' version about an "attack" done by Brazilian fans, putting into doubt the true origin of the injury that Rojas claimed he had suffered. That injury didn't show signs of burning or gunpowder traces, but signs of being generated by a cutting object. However, Brazilian police identified and arrested the fan that threw the flare onto the pitch: a 24-year-old fan called Rosenery Mello do Nascimento, known later as Fogueteira do Maracanã.

As the investigation progressed, it became evident to CONMEBOL managers that Rojas' injury was not caused by an object thrown from the grandstands. Rojas confessed to having cut himself with a razor blade hidden in one of his gloves to fake an attack by Brazilian fans. Such action was part of a plan aimed to get a third match on neutral soil. In addition, Chilean coach Orlando Aravena asked Rojas and Daniel Rodríguez (the team's doctor) to stay on the pitch to force a scandal with the purpose of nullifying the result of the game or even disqualify the Maracanã stadium as a venue.

Ten days after the game, after uncovering the truth about the incident, FIFA decided that Rojas should be banned "in perpetuity" from professional football pitches (he would receive amnesty in 2000) and Chile would be excluded from playing in the qualifiers to the 1994 FIFA World Cup due to severely violating regulations. In addition, they ruled that the game would be deemed to have been won by Brazil, by an official score of 2–0. In addition, Sergio Stoppel (president of the Football Federation of Chile), Orlando Aravena (coach), Fernando Astengo (player) and Daniel Rodríguez (team's doctor), among others, were punished by FIFA.

Over the following days, there were incidents in front of the Brazilian embassy in Chile, due to the propaganda broadcast in the Chilean media, which echoed the version provided by Rojas and Stoppel. Sports magazines (specially Minuto 90) even launched a conspiracy theory, according to which everything was a plot by João Havelange to secure Brazil's qualification.