Carlos Caszely became the first player sent off in a World Cup

Carlos Caszely’s sending-off did more than change one match in West Berlin. It became the first red card ever shown in a World Cup, turning a single disciplinary decision into one of the tournament’s most durable images. In Chile’s 1-0 loss to West Germany at the Olympiastadion on Friday, June 14, 1974, referee Doğan Babacan produced the dismissal that FIFA still identifies as the opening red card in World Cup history.

The scene unfolded during the 1974 finals in West Germany, a 16-team tournament played from June 13 to July 7. Physical red cards had been introduced before that World Cup, but the system became part of the competition’s lived history only in 1974, when Babacan sent off Caszely during Germany FR’s match against Chile. FIFA’s own archives preserve both the full match and the highlights, keeping the moment available not as trivia, but as a permanent part of the record.

For Chile, the incident became inseparable from the team’s opening campaign. The dismissal came in a match that ended 1-0 to West Germany, and it quickly hardened into a symbol of how Chile’s 1974 World Cup was remembered: not only through the result, but through the discipline imposed on Caszely and the way that single act echoed through the rest of the group stage. Chile later drew with East Germany and Australia before being eliminated, leaving the red card as the most vivid image from the campaign.

That is why Caszely’s expulsion still matters. World Cups are often remembered through goals and trophies, but this one is remembered through a cautionary flash of authority in Berlin. The episode linked Chile’s national team to a broader football narrative about discipline, defiance and the authority of referees, while also giving FIFA a defining visual from an era when the game’s card system was still taking hold. Decades later, the match remains available in FIFA’s archive, and the first red card in World Cup history continues to frame how Chile’s 1974 debut is narrated.