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Monday Morning Image #3

Related Topics: Brazil, Germany, Michael Jackson

One of the most bizarre incidents in World Cup history occurred just moments after this photograph was taken.

It had many viewers in stitches, but it was really no laughing matter for the players in the Zaire team.

With Zaire having already lost group games to Scotland (0-2) and Yugoslavia (0-9), President Mobuto, up until the finals a committed backer of the national football team, saw the results as national humiliation.

He ordered several of his national bodyguards onto a plane bound for Germany to go threaten the players in the national team. The message carried across was that if the team lost by more than three goals to Brazil, they would not be permitted re-entry to the country (under such circumstances that might not have been a bad thing).