Coined “one of the strangest football matches ever”, the 1994 Caribbean Cup qualifier between Barbados and Grenada was utterly bonkers for several reasons. Here’s why…

Only the Caribbean region would see a game of football so bizarre. For a neutral oblivious to the manner of Barbados’ 4-2 win over Grenada, it would seem a simple case of one team beating another team; except this wasn’t anything of the sort.

Let us paint the picture… (*note: some readers will have already heard about this game, but there’s still a lot of people out there unaware of its peculiar nature)

Two-goal margin

It’s late January, 1994. The qualifying process for the Caribbean Cup is in full swing and Barbados are preparing to host Grenada at the National Stadium. In the previous round of fixtures, Barbados had narrowly lost to Puerto Rico before Grenada played them two days later and secured a 2-0 win after extra time. This lifted Grenada to first in the standings and condemned Barbados to last, with Puerto Rico sandwiched in the middle.

So when the two sides met each other, Barbados’ task was a straightforward one: win, and they’re through. But here’s the thing. They had to win by at least a two-goal winning margin because the tournament’s powers that be decided that the “Golden Goal” not only achieved instant victory but also, crucially, it counted as double (incidentally, this is how Grenada overcame Puerto Rico by two goals, via netting the unconventional Golden Goal). As long as Barbados didn’t concede, and they managed to register two goals, it was job done.

Late Grenada goal complicated things (massively)

With 10 minutes left on the clock, Barbados were 2-0 up and in pole position. However, the whole dynamic of the game completely changed when Grenada, refusing to give up, pulled one back on 83 minutes. This meant Barbados had to score otherwise they were crashing out. They more or less threw the kitchen sink at the Grenada defence but the team couldn’t find any gaps, nor space to exploit. With the knowledge of the Golden Goal’s meaning, the Barbadians came up with a plan: to take the match to extra time by scoring in their own net.

Incredibly, a Barbadian defender and the goalkeeper Horace Stoute exchanged passes in the penalty area for several minutes before the defender lashed the ball home into his own net, deliberately. Now the score was level and it was indicated that there would be three minutes of additional time, meaning it was now Grenada’s turn to score, but in either net. A goal for would make it 3-2 (which would abolish the two-goal margin) and likewise a goal against would make it 3-2. Either way, Grenada had to score in a net to prevent the game from heading into extra time.

This led to truly remarkable scenes as Barbados were forced to cover both their own goal and Grenada’s to stop their opponents scoring. You had a Barbadian striker marshaling his own net and a Barbadian defender marshaling the Grenada net, as both team’s players ran around utterly bewildered. After three minutes of absolute chaos, the referee blew for full time and the game went to extra time.

Believe it or not, Barbados went onto score in extra time via forward Trevor Thorne and because the Golden Goal represented two goals, this was enough to give them the 4-2 win and hence qualification to the Caribbean Cup. The Grenadian players dropped to the floor, dejected and despondent. They had gone into the match top of the table and came out of it in second, losing out on goal difference.

Final standings

This was the final standings, with Barbados on top and Grenada in second:

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 2 1 0 1 4 3 +1 3 2 1 0 1 4 4 0 3 2 1 0 1 1 2 -1 3

James Clarkson, then-Grenada coach, spoke of his anguish to the press after the game: “I feel cheated. The person who came up with these rules must be a candidate for a madhouse. The game should never be played with so many players running around the field confused. Our players did not even know which direction to attack: our goal or their goal. I have never seen this happen before. In football, you are supposed to score against the opponents to win, not for them”. Rather unsurprisingly, the specifically modified Golden Goal rule was abolished after 1994 and the organisers haven’t used it in the tournament ever since.

The current Grenada FA President, Cheney Joseph, played for Grenada that day and he has very kindly answered some questions exclusively for The Home of Caribbean Football. Cheney recollects his experiences:

Note: CF stands for Caribbean Football, CJ stands for Cheney Joseph.