When athletes attack: sport’s hall of shame

What happens on the field…

Even in the brutally tough world of Australian rugby league, Tongan-born John Hopoate (pictured -on the left) achieved a special notoriety after perfecting an unpleasant technique for throwing his opponents off their stride.

TV footage demonstrated in excruciating detail how Hopoate inserted his fingers into the back passages of three opponents while playing for Wests Tigers against the North Queensland Cowboys in 2001.

You get wedgies all the time, and jabbed in the stork. John Hopoate

An unrepentant Hopoate was quoted as saying: “You get wedgies all the time, and jabbed in the stork. I’m a great believer that what happens on the field should stay on the field.”

Other professionals disagreed, with former Australia lock Peter Fitzsimmons saying: “There’s an unwritten code … at the very top of the barrel you have got the king hits, fisticuffs – I hit you, you hit me.

“A little bit lower down you have got kicking, lower down still you have got eye-gouging, testicle-pulling, that sort of thing. This, nobody has ever heard of it.”

Read more: Luis Suarez fined for taking a bite out of Chelsea

Hopoate’s victims gave evidence to a tribunal and the player was handed a 12-game suspension.

His rugby career finally came to an end in 2005 after he knocked an opponent out with a reckless high tackle and received another lengthy suspension.

Hopoate took up professional boxing instead.

Hockey horror

Violence is such an established part of this aggressive, high-speed sport that there is a whole unofficial class of player – “enforcers” – who are tasked with protecting star players in the frequent on-ice brawls.

In the early 1900s two ice hockey players were charged with manslaughter following violent clashes that led to the deaths of opponents (both were acquitted).

The two most notorious incidents in recent years both featured players attacking unsuspecting opponents from behind.

In 2000 Marty McSorley of the Boston Bruins was convicted of assault with a weapon after hitting a defenceless Donald Brashear of the Vancouver Canucks on the back of the head with his stick.

Brashear fell and hit his head on the ice, ending up with concussion. McSorley got 18 months probation.

Four years later it was a Canucks player, Todd Bertuzzi, who found himself in court after attacking Steve Moore of the Colorado Avalanche in a game beset by fisticuffs.

Bertuzzi was filmed grabbing Moore by the back of the jersey as he was skating away, “sucker-punching” him in the back of the head and jumping on his back, driving his face into the ice as he fell.

Bertuzzi later pleaded guilty to assault and was given a conditional discharge.

The fighting isn’t always confined to the ice. Three Bruins players received suspensions in 1979 for jumping into the stands to attack a spectator who had hit one of their teammates with a rolled-up programme.

The headbutt

France legend Zinedine Zidane went into the 2006 World Cup final against Italy on a high, having been awarded the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament.

He opened the scoring with a penalty, but Italy equalised.

Then, in the dying minutes of extra time, Zidane headbutted Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest, causing little damage but earning himself a red card. Italy won on penalties.

Zidane claimed Materazzi had provoked him with insults, but the precise nature of the exchange remained a mystery until Materazzi revealed that he had referred to the Frenchman’s “whore of a sister”.

The bite fight

Underdog Evander Holyfield had succeeded in flooring a fading Tyson in their first clash and Iron Mike was out for revenge when the two met again in Las Vegas in 1997.

Holyfield was dominating again when, in the third round, Tyson bit his opponent on his right ear, tearing off a chunk of cartilage and spitting it out on the canvas.

The referee let the fight continue but Tyson proceeded to sink his teeth into Holyfield’s other ear, finally earning a disqualification. The self-styled Baddest Man on the Planet then became involved in a brawl in the ring with Holyfield’s entourage and had to be dragged away by security.

Tyson, who claimed the biting was retaliation for a headbutt from Holyfield, was fined $3m and had his licence to box revoked for a year.

Bombs on the pitch

His intentions were blameless, but Iranian footballer Adel Kolahkaj deserves a special mention for inadvertently detonating a live explosive on the pitch.

The Persepolis midfielder picked up what he thought was a rock that had been thrown on to the grass during a match against Al-Ahli last year, and tossed it out of play.

The missile turned out to be a small bomb which detonated seconds later, the blast narrowly missing several players.

A hand grenade was also said to have been hurled on to the pitch during a mid-1960s match between Millwall and Brentford.

Brentford goalie Chic Brody coolly threw the device into his own goal, supposing correctly that it was a dud.