All Fogged Up…

Arsenal played a friendly game against Dynamo Moscow in heavy fog in 1945 at White Hart Lane and despite the urging of players to suspend play due to the fog, the referee decided that play should continue.
The fog was so thick that the game turned into an absolute farce, with both sides playing by their own set of rules and suffering their own bad luck because of the inclement weather.
Moscow at one point made a substitution but didn’t take a player off, with fans watching the match believing that the Russian club had up to 15 players on the pitch at the one time.
Arsenal also made the best of the conditions, with one of their players—who had earlier been sent off—sneaking back onto the pitch and playing the remainder of the game.
However, they did suffer some bad luck, with their goalkeeper knocking himself out cold after running into the goalpost, which of course, he could not see due to the fog. A spectator reportedly took his place in goals and the match continued.

The story of Ali Dia’s transfer to FC Southampton

23 years ago there was a football player from Liberia called Ali Dia. Ali couldn’t find a football club because of his lack of skills. After being rejected at several clubs he came up with a plan. In the summer of 1991 Ali rang up numerous clubs pretending to be the football legend George Weah. (Weah is one of the greatest football players ever, and was very well known at that time). clubs didn’t believe him and laughed at him, or thought it was a very silly joke. 

Ali almost gave up hope until he met football transfer agent James Mccroyem. James Mccroyem Had connections in the Englisch premier League. He told them that Ali was George Weah’s talented cousin and he was showing great potential. This trick worked and Mccroyem actually managed to get Ali a loan contract at FC Southampton. FC Southampton was one of the best teams in the premier league at that time. 

During training some players and trainers noticed that Ali’s level of football skill was way too low, but Mccroyem claimed that it was because Ali was injured and he needed some time to adapt. The Loan contract Mccroyem set up for Ali made that Ali had a much higher salary than the other southampton players.

When the football season started Southampton was playing against title contestant Leeds United and by everybody’s surprise Ali was on the substitute bench. During the match Southampton their star player Matt le Tissier got a shoulder injury and got replaced by Ali. The football world was shocked by the Ali his terrible performance, even his own teammates were shook. After 20 minutes Ali was taken of the pitch and he became a national laughing stock after Southampton had lost the match 4-0. The next day, Ali was banned from the squad and in the same week sent away by the Southampton direction. 

No one ever heard of him again, but he is the first and only player who pretended to be a professional football player, and actually played a game in the premier league. 

That’s why he shall never be forgotten.