1) Rugby: Craig Joubert gets offside at this year's rugby World Cup 2015
Scotland turned out to be the surprise standard bearers for the northern hemisphere's rather tepid assault on the world title. But they were cruelly sunk by Joubert's late offside call in the quarterfinal against Australia.
Digging deep, former Scottish forward John Beattie called Joubert "a numpty". Digging even deeper, another former Scottish player Kenny Logan said: "I hate doing this but the referee had a shocker." Warming up in this hated role, Logan reckoned Joubert "should never referee at this level again".
"He ran down the tunnel like a scared rabbit because he made a ridiculous decision." Joubert's decision was officially criticised as wrong, and the South African wasn't sighted at the tournament again.
2) Boxing: Roy Jones is knocked over by the judges in a home park decision
Teenager Roy Jones, who as we all know was a rather decent boxer, pummeled South Korea's Park in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The local man took two standing eight counts and copped 86 punches while landing 32. In one of the great hometown decisions, he won by 3 - 2 with bribery and corruption assumed by man to be the reason.
One of the judges, Hiouad Larbi of Morocco, claimed he knew the other judges would score a win for Jones, so voted for the Korean so as not to embarrass the host country. The three offending judges were banned for two years, and Jones was voted the outstanding boxer of the Games. An IOC probe found South Korea - who were allegedly unhappy with decision at the 1984 Los Angeles Games - had "wined and dined" the three judges.
This was pre-internet days, so by current wild standards the reaction was actually quite muted. Jones got a consolation award from the IOC nine years later.
3) Football: Poll with margin for error
Some decisions have a groundbreaking quality which makes them unforgettable. English referee Graham Poll was having a great World Cup in 2006, until he carded himself out of his career.
In the match between Croatia and Australia, he failed to send off defender Josip Simunic having booked him twice. The Croatian was decidedly ungrateful, arguing with Poll after the final whistle, getting a third yellow card, and finally being sent off.
Poll has been philosophical coming up with the immortal line: "What you have to do in life is just deal with the cards you've been dealt." Poll's error was to put Simunic's first booking in his notebook's Australian column, a moment which led to an initial hounding and ongoing ridicule.
(A Sun headline read: "Poll's Three Card Thick"). Poll said: "Certain people who I thought were my friends let me down and didn't support me, and that's a good thing because you realise who your friends are, so a lot of positives came out of that."
Poll quit the whistle soon after the incident and now writes a hard hitting column, about referees.
4) Grid Iron: Great moments in coin tossing history...Bettis has a bob each way
Truth be told there have been a few dodgy coin toss incidents in cricket...but that's another story. In this 1998 classic, umpire Phil Luckett has been lampooned, maybe unfairly. Confusion reigned after the overtime coin toss between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detroit Lions.
The coin showed 'tails', and Luckett believed Steelers captain Jerome Bettis called 'heads'. Bettis claimed to have called tails, although tape enhancement tended to suggest he called 'hea-tails' which is not what coin tossing good practice is all about. The Lions received the ball and won.
As a result coin toss rules were tightened up, and not before time it must be said. For his troubles, Luckett was parodied with a botched coin toss in the 2001 movie Rat Race.
5) Tennis: A very loud racket
The call itself may have been okay, although possibly not. It's what came next which lives in history.
Spotting a puff of chalk which convinced John McEnroe his serve was good, he launched sport's most famous tirade against umpire Edward James during his 1981 Wimbledon clash against Tom Gullikson. In what can be described as an emotional collapse, McEnroe screamed the words that will live on, forever.
"You can't be serious". More filth and fury followed. As bad as his behaviour was, it struck a cathartic chord as a writer in The New Yorker once opined. Unashamed, McEnroe titled his memoir "You Cannot Be Serious"..
