CORRUPTION? Scandal? Modern-day sport might be full of off-field politics, but nothing matches a right good strop on it.

Summer 1920 and Belgium was hosting its first Olympics – the first of any Games since Sweden in 1912 due to the First World War.

Great Britain had won the football gold medal at the previous event eight years earlier in Stockholm, just as they had at London in 1908.

But GB, star-studded with players from Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Everton and Derby County, fell at the first hurdle to Norway, prompting mass hysteria in the national press back home.

Britain’s entry in the Games was already a talking point before they kicked a ball, with United States officials calling for them to be refused after England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales pulled out of FIFA a year earlier to form their own governing body, the Federation of National Football Association.

But that, and Britain’s early exit, was a side note, the real talking point would be saved for the final. Albeit largely involving an Englishman, referee John Lewis.

There was outcry from finalists Czechoslovakia when 72-year-old Lewis was handed the match on the back of a controversial semi final that saw him attacked by fans.

Czechoslovakia were to play hosts Belgium in Antwerp, at the Olympic Stadium.

It took just six minutes for Belgium to take the lead, with Robert Coppée firing home a penalty awarded by Lewis in front of the home fans.

Then, on 30 minutes, the lead was doubled, this time Henri Larnoe was the scorer but it was another goal disputed by the Czechs.

Then came the nail in the coffin. Six minutes before half time Czech defender Karl Steiner was shown a red card by Lewis for what the former Blackburn Rovers man deemed “rough play”.

The Eastern Europeans were outraged and promptly walked off the pitch, refusing to return, while Belgium were handed the gold medal and Czechoslovakian cries for a rematch dismissed.

The Czechs listed three reasons for the withdrawal and subsequent disqualification, which included Lewis’ refereeing, an English linesman and the arrival of Belgian soldiers in the Olympic Stadium.

Despite Belgium having won, it was agreed placings for the rest of the tournament would be decided by the Bergvall System, where countries who had lost to the champions played a new competition for the silver and bronze spots – without Czechoslovakia.

Spain, originally knocked out by Belgium at the quarter-final stage, took silver, while a Netherlands side who lost out to the eventual gold medalists in the last four ended up with bronze.

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