On This Day – 2nd March
It was on this day back in 1999 that Argentinian midfielder Diego Simeone admitted that he had tried to get David Beckham sent off in the World Cup the previous year.
Beckham had kicked out at Simeone after the Argentine shoved him to the floor. The incident happened early in the second half of the Second Round match between England and Argentina in the 1998 World Cup.
The referee in question was Kim Milton-Nielsen, a Danish referee who over the course of his career refereed 154 internationals and the 2004 Champions League Final. I have interviewed Kim and the interview can be found here.
When asked about the incident, Simeone admitting to conning the Danish referee into sending Beckham off.
He stated “Let’s just say the referee fell into the trap. You could say that my falling transformed a yellow card into a red card.
Obviously I was being clever. By letting myself fall, I got the referee to pull out a red card immediately”.
Argentina went on to win the game 4-3 on penalties after the game had finished 2-2 after extra-time. They were knocked out in the following round by Holland.
Beckham became a public hate-figure in England after the red card. The following season he was booed at every away game that he played in. He said later that the sending-off made him grow up a lot.
About Author
