Football becomes more exciting when one team scores an increasing number of goals against the other. Results exceeding five goals are considered heavy defeats, and if the margin is larger, sports newspapers might call it a football scandal. But what about a match that defied all logic, ending with a score of 149-0, the largest result ever recorded in the world of football?
The score might astonish you, but it really happened in Madagascar in 2002 during a local tournament held among the island nation’s 24 teams. They were divided into four groups of six teams each, with the top three from each group advancing to the next stage. Two additional groups of six teams were formed, and the top two teams from each of these groups progressed to the decisive round, where four teams competed for the title: ‘Adiva,’ ‘Dolaimerina,’ ‘Antananarivo,’ and ‘Ambohidrimo,’ the previous tournament’s champion.
During this round, ‘Dolaimerina’ faced ‘Antananarivo.’ They needed to win to keep their chance of winning the title alive, as a draw or loss would drastically reduce their chances, especially since their next match was against ‘Adiva,’ the home team. After ‘Dolaimerina’ led 2-1, a controversial penalty awarded to ‘Antananarivo’ by referee Benjamin Razafintsalama led to a tie, resulting in a massive protest from ‘Dolaimerina’s’ players and officials about the perceived injustice. The issue was settled with their match against ‘Adiva.’
On August 31, 2002, the historic match took place. ‘Dolaimerina’ players, feeling frustrated from the previous match, took out their anger by scoring own goals shortly after the game started. ‘Adiva’s’ players, stunned, never touched the ball and watched as ‘Dolaimerina’ players repeatedly scored in their own net until the game ended with a score of 149-0 in favor of ‘Adiva,’ who won the title. Reports suggest that fans even went to ticket booths demanding refunds.
Despite the bizarre result, the Malagasy Football Federation ratified it and imposed sanctions on four ‘Dolaimerina’ players with a suspension until the end of the 2002 season and banned them from stadiums during their suspension. The head coach of the team, Ratsimandresy Ratsarazak, who masterminded the events, was given a three-year suspension and also banned from stadiums. The remaining players received warnings not to repeat such behavior, while the referee responsible for the events received no penalty or even a warning.
Due to the significant result, it attracted the attention of the Guinness World Records, and it was listed as the largest result ever recorded, surpassing the previous record held by ‘Arbroath’ against ‘Bon Accord,’ which ended with a score of 36-0 in the Scottish Cup in 1885.
