On June 14, 1974, Chilean forward Carlos Caszely walked off the pitch in a match against West Germany and into the history books. His dismissal in the 80th minute made him the first player ever to receive an official red card at a FIFA World Cup.
A card system that took four years to actually work
FIFA introduced the red and yellow card system at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but nobody actually got sent off during that entire tournament. The cards existed in theory. Referees carried them. They just never escalated to the nuclear option.
That changed in 1974 when Turkish referee Dogan Babacan reached into his pocket during Chile’s group-stage match against West Germany. Chile was already losing 1-0. Caszely’s departure in the 80th minute sealed what was already a forgone conclusion on the scoreboard.
Players had been expelled from World Cup matches before, of course. The first player ever dismissed from a World Cup match was Placido Galindo of Peru, way back in 1930. But that era predated the card system entirely. Galindo’s removal was a verbal affair, lacking the dramatic visual clarity that Caszely’s red card would later provide to millions watching on television.
