During the 1978 World Cup a man from the South Wales village of Treorchy became one of the most hated and vilified men in Brazil. Long before the days of VAR, when referees were still only human, Clive Thomas made one of the most high profile calls in front of the watching world during a World Cup group stage match between Brazil and Sweden.

The teams were level at 1-1 after Reinaldo had cancelled out Thomas Sjoberg’s opener when Brazil got a corner in the 90th minute. Nelinho went over to take the kick and his cross was headed home by Zico but instead of jubilant Samba celebrations, the cameras showed Thomas waving his arms to indicate that he had already blown the final whistle and that the goal would not count.

Naturally, the Brazilian players were furious. It was their opening game of the World Cup and instead of starting with a win they had been held to a draw. In Thomas and the Swedes defence, the goalkeeper had clearly heard the whistle and didn’t react to the header. The defenders at the near post did try to get it clear but the goalkeeper was already celebrating the draw as the ball passed him and he “might” have been able to make the save.

In hindsight, some will consider that the disallowed goal didn’t make a lot of difference as Brazil still progressed to the next round but the reality was it potentially changed the course of history. Brazil ended up finishing second in the group behind Austria and went into Group B of the second round which pitted them against hosts Argentina.

Historians among you will know what happened in Group B. Brazil and Argentina beat Peru and Poland respectively before drawing with each other meaning there would essentially be a shootout in the final matches as Brazil tackled Poland before Argentina took on Peru who at the time were the reigning Copa America champions.

Brazil ran out 3-1 winners over Poland which meant Argentina would need to beat Peru by at least four goals to go through. In the end, Argentina won 6-0 sparking conspiracy theories that say the countries had agreed to an outcome that would see Argentina reach the final in Buenos Aires. There is speculation to this day that the game was fixed and a Peruvian senator has even confirmed that an arrangement was made that would see several Peruvian political prisoners sent to Argentina to be tortured into signing false confessions.

Whether the game was fixed or not, had Thomas allowed the corner to develop it may all have been avoided. A win over Sweden would have sent Brazil into Group A where they would have played Holland, Italy and West Germany. There’s no guarantee they would have beat what was a special Dutch side but they did record a 2-1 win over Italy in the third-place playoff so there’s every chance the Brazil – Argentina battle could have been saved for the final.

To this day, Thomas still believes he made the correct decision and instead it’s an incident in the 1976 European Championship semi-finals between Czechoslovakia and Holland that left him with sleepless nights. Antonin Panenka (yes, that Panenka) fouled Johan Cruyff in the build-up to the goal that put the Czechs 2-1 up as they went onto win 3-1 to secure a place in the final against West Germany. In 2008 he admitted that he had made a mistake in a documentary for Dutch TV.

Thomas’ decision still splits people to this day. Some believe that because he blew right as the kick was taken he done the right thing while others believe the play should have been allowed to develop. However, if you ask in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo one suspects that they won’t have fond memories of the man from the Welsh valleys.