Chapter 18
England's quarter-final game against Argentina was an ill-tempered affair. Their captain, Rattin, cautioned for a foul on Bobby Charlton, soon found himself in trouble when he started an argument with the German referee that he felt unable to finish. The result was the ref eventually got bored and gave him his marching orders. He refused to go. In the end, Fifa officials and the police had to escort him from the field of play. Playing with only ten men for most of the match the Argentines persevered and even came close but with ten minutes to go a Hurst glancing header sealed the deal. England had made it to the semi-finals.
Devastating as it was for Rattin at least his behaviour brought about a change in the laws of football. Neither he nor the referee spoke the same language and the Argentinian captain later claimed he was simply asking for an interpreter so the earlier decision could be explained to him and hadn't realised he was being sent off. Unfortunately, his Latin temper and expansive hand movements failed to get this across to the German who, possibly rightly, felt he'd no need to explain anything especially when he thought he was about to be throttled by an angry man.
To prevent future repetition of such unfortunate 'confusion', shortly after this, a Fifa official invented the red and yellow card system.