No, Colombia’s Carlos Sanchez didn’t get the fastest World Cup red card ever

Carlos Sanchez, Colombia’s World Cup idiot-villain against Japan, has nothing on Jose Batista.

Yes, Sanchez’s red card was pretty stupid. Getting sent off for handling the ball in the area is fine, sometimes. But not in the third minute. However, Batista, Uruguay’s left-back in the 1986 tournament, managed an equally stupid dismissal inside the very first minute. His teammates had to play all bar 56 seconds without him, and his record as the fastest red card in World Cup history may never be beaten.

It was a group game between Uruguay and Scotland. Neither team was having a great tournament: Scotland needed a win, while Uruguay, who’d drawn one earlier game, could qualify with another point. But they’d been hammered in their last game, 6-1, by Denmark, after picking up a red card in the 18th minute.

18 minutes? said Batista, probably. That’s nothing. Watch this ...

You can sort of understand the thinking: It’s early, there’s no way I’ll get a card this early, I’ll just let the winger know I’m here ... oh. Oh dear.

The match descended into a mess from there, as Uruguay alternated between further hits on Scotland’s players and haranguing the referee. Speaking years later, Batista was adamant he didn’t deserve the red card. “I didn’t hit Strachan intentionally, it was just a hard tackle, maybe a yellow card.”

Fair to say the Scots disagreed. After the game, which finished 0-0, Scotland’s manager Alex Ferguson accused Uruguay of having “no respect for other people’s dignity,” and claimed he was “glad to go home.” Meanwhile the secretary of the Scottish FA described the opposition as “cheats and cowards” and “the scum of world football.”

Soccer: it’s a game of opinions.