Ranked: The most bizarre endings in sports finals

The Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres were searching for their first Stanley Cup wins, which meant history would be made no matter the outcome of the series.

Dallas came into game six with a 3-2 lead and had the chance to lift the trophy in front of a hostile Buffalo crowd.

The Stars took the lead in the first period before the Sabres fought back to level the score at 1-1 near the end of the second.

The score stayed tied until the end of regulation and continued to be locked in for another two periods of overtime.

The deadlock was finally broken by Brett Hull who slotted the puck into the back of the net with a total of 54 minutes and 51 seconds of overtime played.

However, the goal itself became the subject of debate and should have been disallowed because Hull’s skate was in the crease.

For those who don’t follow ice hockey, the crease is the colourfully marked area around the goal where the goaltenders stand, and, at the time, attacking players could not be in the crease when a goal was scored.

The controversial call haunted Sabres fans for years, and the team hasn’t returned to the Stanley Cup Final since, while the game itself is the second longest Stanley Cup Final match of all time.

Although not technically a final, the English Premier League’s title race came down to what was effectively the last kick of the season.

The 20th edition of the league produced an unforgettable two-horse race between cross-town rivals Manchester United and Manchester City.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s United side were searching for their 13th Premier League title and their second in two years, while a Manchester City side led by Roberto Mancini and recently boosted by a Middle Eastern takeover, aimed to secure their first league title since 1968.

Both teams were level on points, but City had a superior goal difference meaning a win would secure them the trophy.

Manchester United thought they had won the league after beating Sunderland away 1-0 and knowing relegation candidates QPR were beating their rivals.

Back in Manchester, strange events happened in the May sunshine that made the game unforgettable.

QPR wouldn’t be relegated if they beat Manchester City or if Bolton lost, and they took a 2-1 lead midway through the second half despite captain Joey Barton being sent off.

Former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, who scored his side’s only goal against Sunderland, said on The Overlap Fan Debate he felt QPR’s performance at the end of the game was strange.

“That was a tough one, but again didn’t Paddy Kenny turn the ball in for two goals? QPR knew they were safe, City get to 2-2 then they just boot the ball back to them,” he said.

Whatever caused QPR’s capitulation in the final minutes of that game produced one of the most iconic endings to a football season, with Edin Dzeko tying the game up in injury time and Sergio Aguero smashing the ball into the back of the net in the 94th minute.

Manchester United won the Premier League the next season, but have since struggled to contend for English football’s top prize, while Manchester City have become one of the most dominant teams in European football.

In what should have been Zinedine Zidane’s swansong came a moment of madness in Berlin that might never be seen again on world football’s biggest stage.

Zidane came out of retirement from international football to help France qualify for the tournament and had an impressive competition, helping his country return to the final.

France were looking for their second World Cup title while their opponents Italy hoped to secure their fourth in what was a tense affair.

Zidane opened the scoring early through a penalty before Marco Materazzi levelled the score 12 minutes later.

Deep into extra time, the two goalscorers were jogging up the pitch and exchanged some words before Zidane turned and headbutted Materazzi.

Italian players were harassing the referee, officials were moving around the pitch discussing the incident and in the end the French captain was sent off.

The match was unable to be decided in extra time so went to penalties, where France’s David Trezeguet smashed the ball against the crossbar and Italy took home the trophy with a penalty shootout victory.

Another season that came down to the final day.

The season was filled with controversy, mainly involving the two drivers going for the Drivers’ Championship Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton was forced off the track by Verstappen during the Brazil Grand Prix, but the Dutchman did not face a penalty while his main rival won the race from 20th in the sprint weekend.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix saw Verstappen forced to give Hamilton the lead back twice and the Brit colliding with the back of Verstappen’s car, which had slowed down.

The pair went into the final weekend in Abu Dhabi level on points and they ended up facing a one-on-one race in the final lap that will be forever marred by a questionable call by race officials.

With five laps left, Nicholas Latifi crashed and a safety car was deployed, which allowed Verstappen to pit for a set of fresh tyres while Mercedes kept Hamilton out on the track.

The decision from Hamilton’s team made sense because, as race leader, if he had gone into the pits then Verstappen would have stayed out, taken the lead and probably won the race.

The race did restart, with race director Michael Masi changing his mind about whether lapped cars could overtake.

He initially said they couldn’t, then changed his mind when Verstappen’s Red Bull team complained it was against protocol.

So, the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were told to overtake, but the three other lapped cars further back were not allowed to overtake, which Mercedes then complained was against normal protocol but had no success.

The two drivers battled it out on the final lap, but Verstappen’s victory seemed inevitable and he eventually passed Hamilton on the fifth turn.

Mercedes’ appeals were thrown out because of a regulation that said the race director has “overriding authority” on several matters including the safety car, but team principal Toto Wolff’s words to the race director of “No Michael, no no!” and “That was so not right” is still ringing in the ears of fans who might never see Hamilton win an eighth Drivers’ Championship.

For this entry, we head back more than 50 years to the 1972 Munich Olympics, where the United States played the Soviet Union in the basketball final.

The Americans had never lost a basketball match at the Olympics up until this game, with the youngest squad selected to represent the country at the multi-sport event expected to secure the gold again.

However, the Soviets looked to have a tight grip on the contest, taking a 26-21 lead into the halftime break and extending that lead for much of the second half.

The United States fought their way back into the game in the last six minutes and eventually took the lead with three seconds remaining through two Doug Collins free throws.

The USSR attempted to take a timeout in between the free throws but this was not allowed, although the referees then allowed them a timeout with one second remaining.

Dr William Jones, the secretary of basketball’s governing body Fiba, intervened and ordered three seconds to be put back on the clock.

Play resumed, the Soviets threw a pass that went awry and the Americans started celebrating, only to be told play had started while the clock was being reset.

The three seconds were put back up, again, the American players put no pressure on Ivan Edeshko on the inbound line and Alexander Belov scored a lay-up at the death to deny the USA a seventh-straight gold medal in the event.

The American appeal was denied and the players refused to collect their silver medals, which have still gone unclaimed to this day.

Since then, the USA has won 10 more men’s basketball gold medals, while the Soviet Union claimed one more in 1988 just before it collapsed.

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final is the most recent entry on the list and a decision on the final result is still being debated.

The most recent edition of Africa’s premier international football tournament involved hosts Morocco playing 2021 champions Senegal.

The game was scoreless and possession evenly split between the two sides, but its most memorable moment came in the 98th minute when referee Jacques Ndala awarded Morocco a penalty.

Senegal had a goal disallowed moments before this and head coach Pape Thiaw was so angered by the events he ordered his team off the pitch.

Former Liverpool striker Sadio Mane stayed on the field to encourage his teammates to finish the game and they returned after a 17-minute delay.

Real Madrid’s Brahim Diaz stepped up to take the penalty for Morocco and produced an embarrassing “Panenka” attempt that was easily saved by goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

Off the pitch, Senegalese fans clashed violently with Moroccan police and Senegal back-up keeper Yehvann Diouf had to stop Mendy’s towel being taken by Moroccan ball boys.

The referee swiftly blew for fulltime and extra time soon started with Pape Gueye scoring an impressive goal to give Senegal the lead.

Morocco could not equalise and the trophy was awarded to the Senegalese, with Thiaw’s press conference afterwards being cancelled because of disruption in the press room while Morocco head coach Walid Regragui called their opponents’ actions “shameful”.

However, the controversy did not end at the final whistle as the Confederation of African Football (Caf) overturned the result about two months after the final whistle.

Caf said Senegal were declared to have forfeited the match because of the walk-off and the match was now recorded as a 3-0 win for Morocco.

Senegal have appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but proceedings are likely to continue on this for months still.

Probably the final that hurts New Zealand fans more than anything.

The Black Caps and England were neck and neck at Lord’s for both of their innings, with each scoring 241 in their 50 overs.

However, the final over of the designated 50 overs for the chasing England side caused chaos to ensue.

Ben Stokes tried to hit 15 from the final over to win the match and came close, having smashed a six that was then followed by probably the most controversial play of the entire tournament.

A deep throw back towards the stumps was deflected by the diving Stokes’ bat and went for four overthrows, giving England the perfect opportunity to win their first 50-over World Cup title.

Mark Wood was run out on the final ball of the innings and the scores were left tied and a super over was required to decide the winner.

England scored 15 in their super over and New Zealand required two runs from their final ball.

Martin Guptill tried to return for the second run but was short of the crease when Jos Buttler removed the bails.

England celebrated – but, why? Weren’t the scores tied again?

The Black Caps lost the final because England had hit more boundaries in the match.

Possibly even more sickening is that the ICC removed the boundary countback rule months after the final, with results like this being decided by super overs until the deadlock is broken.

Rochdale v York City, English National League: English football’s fifth division doesn’t usually make national or international headlines, but the final day of the 2025/26 season produced one of the sport’s most dramatic endings.

Both teams were going for the single automatic promotion place and each had more than 100 points.

A win for Rochdale would see them promoted, while anything but a loss would have York go up.

Rochdale scored in the 95th minute, prompting fans to enter the pitch and celebrate an all-but secured victory before York City hit back in the 103rd minute with the assistant referee flagging Josh Stones’ shot as crossing the line – there’s no goal line technology here to check that.

Houston Astros 2017 World Series: The Houston Astros were on the hunt for their first World Series title and put in an impressive regular season performance.

The LA Dodgers took the Astros all the way to game seven, but the team from Texas came out on top.

It was more the events after the series that dominated headlines, with the Astros being caught stealing signs and banging a rubbish bin to tell the batter what the pitcher was throwing.

The Astros did not have to vacate their title and players weren’t disciplined, rather they were fined US$5 million by the MLB and had some draft picks taken away, while manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were fired.

Formula One final day crashes: Several Formula One titles have come down to the final race and crashes have complicated the outcomes multiple times.

In 1997, Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villenueve could have both won the Drivers’ Championship at the final race of the season in Jerez, Spain. Schumacher was overtaken by his Canadian opponent and then tried to take him out, with the German ultimately crashing out of the race and being disqualified from the championship for his actions.

Schumacher also crashed into title rival Damon Hill in Adelaide’s 1994 race, with both cars being forced out of the race this time and Schumacher taking the championship by a single point.

McLaren team-mates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost collided at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, which forced Prost to retire. However, Senna was then disqualified from the race, which gave Prost the championship and the Brazilian claimed Fisa president Jean-Marie Balestre intervened to aid the French driver.

One year later, at the same Japanese course, Senna deliberately crashed into Prost at the first corner and secured himself the Drivers’ Championship.

1956 Grand National: The Queen Mother’s horse Devon Loch took an early lead at Aintree and looked as though it would canter home to a well-deserved victory.

However, in front of the Royal Box and about 40m from the finish line, Devon Loch jumped, or slipped, with its legs splayed and closest challenger E.S.B. running through for victory.

2006 Super 14 Final: The fog final. Crusaders fans might remember it as another title victory, most others will remember it for how most watching at home struggled to see the players through the thick fog that set in about an hour before kickoff.

Piri Weepu was also allowed to continue to play the match after being knocked out, while Tana Umaga and Chris Masoe were reportedly involved in an incident at the Jolly Poacher Bar where the former All Blacks captain supposedly took Masoe aside after an incident with another patron and hit him with a woman’s handbag.

2015 NRL Grand Final: North Queensland scored a try with no time left on the clock and Johnathan Thurston had the chance to seal the game with the conversion, but struck the right post and sent the game to golden point.

The opening kickoff was knocked on by Brisbane Bronco Ben Hunt, which allowed Thurston to slot home the field goal and win the Grand Final for North Queensland.

All Blacks: Two incidents will likely spring to mind for All Blacks fans, the first being the 1995 Rugby World Cup final where New Zealand headed into the match as favourites but fell ill in the days before with some claims of a poisoning taking place.

The other, slightly more minor incident, saw frustration over refereeing in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final against the Springboks. Sam Cane was shown the first red card in a final for his shoulder making contact with Jesse Kriel’s head. Siya Kolisi committed a similar infringement later on and only received a yellow, with All Blacks fans left reeling with what appeared to be inconsistent TMO decisions throughout the match.