Window to the Past: Jan Berger did not touch the opponent, in 1985 the Czechoslovak selection was cut by the Irish referee

The Czech national team lost 0:1 to Sweden in the Qatar World Cup barrage and will not be going to the World Cup. Prior to this match, the Czechoslovak national team had only once in its history fought on Swedish soil to qualify for the World Cup, in June 1985, when it lost 0:2 to the home team in Stockholm. And the memory is not pleasant. “We were cut,” says Spartan legend Jan Berger.

Germany, Portugal, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. Four contenders for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico were on offer in the European qualifying group 2, Malta was just a few in number. To keep their hopes of success alive, coach Josef Masopust’s charges had to score points, preferably win, in Stockholm on 5 June 1985.

“We didn’t kick a bad game, but we were damaged by the referee (Irish referee Eamonn Farrell) when, towards the end of the game in a goalless draw (77th minute), he awarded a penalty for a fake tackle by me,” recalls Czechoslovak international Jan Berger.

Yet he was innocent of the penalty and did not even touch the opposing player. “Years later, I was interviewed by a player, the actor Glenn Strömberg, who filmed the penalty,” he reveals the rest of the story.

“He played for a long time in Italy for Atalanta Bergamo and probably still lives there, they invited me to Klánovice where he interviewed me. And on that occasion he told me that he was sorry for the penalty,” he reveals. “Twenty years on, it doesn’t make any difference to me,” he realises.

A well-known football rule says that a penalty is a penalty if the referee calls it. “Strömberg did it extremely cleverly,” Berger admits. “He even admitted it in an interview years later – I fell down, the referee ate it, it wasn’t my fault! It’s just that he damaged us,” the Swedish opponent doesn’t shrug off the shadow of sin for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

He did not seek justice or at least moral satisfaction. “After the match I was angry at the referee for messing up,” he did not intend to keep the remorse for losing the match to himself.

“I could observe in him that he was all nervous and I had the feeling that he had a bad conscience,” he observed. On the other hand, he doesn’t look for faults only in others “I don’t want to make excuses. We didn’t score, so we couldn’t win,” he admits.

In the match, the famous playmaker and conductor started next to František Straka in the unusual position of a stopper. “Coach Masopust appointed it that way, he says he has no one better,” Berger marvels even after all these years.

“Honza Fiala on the left flank, Pepa Chovanec in midfield. With him, I was a bit lost during the match,” he offers an easy solution.

Although Czechoslovakia beat the Swedes 2-1 on home soil in October 1985, the representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany and Portugal went to Mexico. Their Czech followers will also be missing this year in Qatar.

Source: UEFA