While the world of athletics can leave spectators with beautiful moments, its underbelly of poor sportsmanship leaves the memory of viewers with indelible stains.

Look no further than the image that tarnished this year’s world cup. French captain Zinedine Zidane received a three-game suspension and was fined $6,000 by FIFA as punishment for his head-butt to Italy’s Marco Materazzi. While the act perhaps overshadows a tremendous tournament, it fails to crack the top five of the most despicable moments in sports history.

5: Disco Demolition Night

What might be the most ill-thought-out promotional scheme ever was the “brain-child” of Mike Veeck, son of then-Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck. To curb plummeting attendance rates, Mike used his hatred for disco as a means to get people in the seats. If fans showed up to the July 12, 1979 double header against the Detroit Tigers with 98 cents and a disco record ready to burn, they would be treated to the bonus of watching their donation be detonated. Fifty thousand spectators showed up, and the frenzied mob went nuts after their disco paraphernalia was sent to kingdom come. The bomb’s explosion ripped a ten foot chunk out of centre field and catalyzed the crowd to swarm the grass and start several fires. By the time policemen in riot gear controlled the mob Chicago was forced to concede the game. It remains the last forfeiture in American League history.

4: “Rocket” Richard’s tomahawk

When “Rocket” Richard deliberately injured Hal Laycoe by tomahawking him over the head with his stick on March 13, 1955, he was sent off for the remainder of the match. When he then punched out linesman Cliff Thompson, then-NHL president Clarence Campbell banned Richard for the remainder of the season. The loss of their most talented player caused an insidious uproar amongst Habs fans. When Campbell attended a Canadiens game in Montreal later that year, he was pelted with eggs and the arena was evacuated as an out-of-control crowd took to the streets. The ensuing riot caused $500,000 in damage.

3: Tyson Bites Holyfield’s ear

Mike’s ferociously feral ways were brought to a pay-per-view audience June 28, 1997. In the third round of his second bout against Evander Holyfield, the ex-convict Tyson bit a piece of his opponent’s ear off -twice- before being disqualified. He was fined $3 million and banned from boxing for one year.

2: The Artest Melee

After giving a hard foul to Detroit centre Ben Wallace in the waning moments of a 97-82 Pacer victory, Ron Artest lay down on the scorer’s table in mock placidity while players brawled at centre court. But when a fan in the stands hit Indiana’s forward with a cup of beer, Artest snapped. He charged into the seats – and without knowing who threw the cup – started punching random spectators. Quickly joining the fracas were teammates Stephen Jackson, David Harrison, and Jermaine O’Neal. All four were suspended, with Artest receiving the brunt of the punishment at 86 games without pay.

1: The Soccer War

While hooligans and riots are a notvuncommon aspect of futebol, the real-life ramifications of a game were never more pronounced than between El Salvador and Honduras in the late sixties. Political and social upheavals between the two nations made tensions high, and during the 1969 North American qualifying tournament for the 1970 World Cup, the animosity boiled over.

Honduras won the first leg of a best of three affair with a 1-0 win. A relatively friendly match, it quickly turned ugly when Honduras traveled to San Salvador for the second game of the tournament. Two nights before the contest, the Honduras team had their hotel burned down, and were lucky enough to have no casualties. The next night in a new hotel, the rowdy Salvadorans again harassed the visiting team, keeping them from their sleep by singing their “apologies” until daybreak.

The exhausted Honduran squad was pinned for a 3-0 loss, and barely escaped back home as Salvadorans rioted after the match. The bitterness boiled over after El Salvador won the third and final match 3-2 in extra time, causing Honduras to immediately cut diplomatic relations with their neighbour. Two weeks later on July 14, El Salvador attacked Honduras. The war lasted five days, but at the cost of 2,000 lives, the majority of which were Honduran. It remains a vein of bad blood between the nations.