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Maradona 'Hand of God' Goal 1986 World Cup

Maradona 'Hand of God' Goal 1986 World Cup

ClassicEngland
0 HN recommenders · discussed 2015–2025
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About this video

A one-minute clip of Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal against England at the 1986 World Cup. It is part of a ClassicEngland series of unforgettable moments.

Why it appears in the archive

HN uses it as footage of a famous officiating failure, linked in Maradona obituary and video-review threads.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

aazaa · 2020-11 · reference

Not sure why this is here (don't follow soccer and never heard of Maradona), but the "Hand of God" incident is an entertaining read: [LINK] and watch: [VIDEO] On second thought, this was probably a hack of sorts.

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dylan604 · 2025-09 · reference

For those unfamiliar: [VIDEO] I just watched the replay, and I'm convinced VAR would rule it offside. So the hand of god would be irrelevant. The AR on the far side of the pitch is just out of frame at the crucial moment, so he was clearly behind the play. That's a position you never want to find yourself as an AR. I always found the AR role much more demanding than the referee. Keeping that offside line is difficult at best and nearly impossible if you're 30+ something trying to keep up with fit professional athletes in peak fitness in their 20s. Now, after that call was blown, again due to the framing, it is hard to see where the ref was looking. You can see his last position easily 30 yards from goal while Maradona makes contact about 8 yards from goal. There are at least 15 players in between the ref and the play at that point. Also, a very telling thing is that there was no conversation between the AR and the ref. On contentious plays, you'd see the ref back peddle to the AR (never take your eyes of the pitch) and have a chat about who saw what. I don't know if the ref crew had radios back in 1986, but the fact that the ref did not think it was worthy of a chat with his AR who would have had a different angle to view it says a lot about the ref's thinking. If the AR had seen it and wanted to chat with the ref, he would have stood still with his flag raised. If he felt the goal was good, he would keep his flag down and make a little run up the touchline towards midfield.

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smtddr · 2015-06 · joke

Disclaimer: GoogleFanBoy here, feel free to ignore or downvote. So, I've interviewed with Google twice. Once was 3 years ago, the other was like 2 weeks ago. They contacted me. The way I see Google's interviews is like referee in Football (soccer or "Futbol") . Sure, you need a certain amount of skill to play in the World Cup but you winning or losing can, and often enough does, come down to a controversial referee call. You end up losing out to a team that did a handball - [VIDEO] , but that's just how it is. What makes me like watching soccer so much is the same thing that excites me about Google's interview process. Yes, there is heartbreak and anger. Just like World cup fans get angry when their team loses because they were denied a point for an off-sides call even when the player was nowhere near off-sides. --- Is Google's interview process fair? Nope. --- Would I subject myself to their futbol-referee style of judging candidates again? You bet. --- Do I think they should make their process more fair? Nope, let the drama and _justified_ rant posts continue. Just like I want the unfairness in futbol to stay as is. I was one of the people against putting the microchip inside the ball to know for sure if it crosses the goal line. I want the drama of a ref having to call it and sometimes getting it wrong. I know people, especially on HN, love reliable & repeatable. I do too, except when it comes to dealing with humans.

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