Unforgettable Soccer. Luciano Wernicke
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Название: Unforgettable Soccer
Автор: Luciano Wernicke
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Сделай Сам
isbn: 9781782554943
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Alessandro Veronese, scorer of the Italian team ASD Calcio Battaglia Terme, demonstrated why he had the reputation as a pickup artist in October 1996. In a match against La Rocca Monselice, played on the field of Via Reinaldi during the Veneto regional tournament, Veronese scored the second goal—and his second that afternoon—for his team with a powerful shot from 100 feet, which put the score at 2 to 1. To celebrate his double, the “artigliere” took off his blue-and-yellow shirt and hurled it. As he had already received one yellow card that day, the referee Anna de Toni showed Veronese another yellow and then the red card. The striker was astonished and, before leaving the field, approached the ref, shook her hand and gave her two kisses, one on each cheek. This action was written down by De Toni in her report, which was brought up to the Disciplinary Tribunal. After analyzing the case, the council disqualified the striker for two games, one more than what was usual for the consecutive yellows. In its resolution, the court determined that “the unusual act of trust toward the referee must be considered contrary to the regulation and punished with a day of suspension.” A coherent failure: two goals, two cautions, two kisses, and two matches’ penalty.
Veronese’s punishment was light, if you compare that with the one received by his Dutch colleague Martin Bennink, although it should be noted that this gentleman kissed the referee on the mouth! Bennink, defender of the SV Wilhelminaschool’s amateur squad of the city of Hengelo, was red-carded for vehemently protesting the referee’s decisions and insulting him. “When they fuck with me, I like to kiss a lot,” Bennink justified himself after planting one on the man in black’s mouth. The Disciplinary Tribunal sentenced him to a suspension of eight matches for exercising “physical violence” and “assault on the dignity” of the referee.
The Spanish journalist Sergi Mas assures us that, in the 70s, the stadium Los Cármenes de Granada C.F. was the scene of a curious situation. Just after the game started between the home team and Real Madrid CF, the referee approached the coach of the host team and ejected him from the field. “Onto the street,” said the man in black to the astonished coach, who had not insulted or committed any fault against anyone. The dizzying arbitrary decision was, in part, due, like the preceding stories, to passionate kisses. Although, in this case, between the coach and the wife of the referee. The ref took advantage of his investiture to take revenge on the person responsible for his having been made a cuckold. On returning to his house, the deceived used his red card again, but this time to throw his wife out of the bedroom.
CRAZY REACTIONS
Insults, blows, and spit are reactions as repulsive as they are “normal” after a red card. Nobody likes to leave the field before the match is done, and, with the heartbeats running up to a thousand beats per minute, violent behavior is today a common occurrence in all the world’s stadiums. However, there are players who have proven to be more original than others when it comes to expressing their anger, such as the Argentine striker Sergio Ibarra. On February 25, 2000, after referee Carlos Hernandez—overseeing the Pesquero de Huancayo-FC Melgar of Arequipa match of the Peruvian First Division—exhibited his red card to the local player Lino Morán. Ibarra approached the man in black and…put his hand on his butt! The freehand man—or “free-fingered man”—was also red-carded and received a six-month punishment from the Justice Committee of the Sports Association (CJAD). Melgar won by a score of 3-0 although the match ended hastily after that: due to their inferiority both on the scoreboard and on the field, three men of Pesquero (today called Deportivo Wanka) simulated injuries for the match to end right there, so the win did not result in catastrophe.
More “playful,” if the word fits, were the members of the amateur team Migliaro. In January of 2008, this squad of the Uruguayan department of Salto suffered five red cards to their rivals of the club Tío (meaning “Uncle,” yes, that’s their name!). As a repudiation of the red tide that had left them without the minimum regulatory amount of seven players to continue with the game, the players surrounded the referee Juan Carlos Silveira and, in a quick maneuver, took off his clothes. Stripped down to his underpants, the helpless referee was eventually rescued by the police.
Another one that did not have it easy was the referee Claudio Aranda in the second division match between Club de Deportes Antofagasta and Club de Deportes La Serena in April of 2003, by the second division. After the home team scored 2-1, La Serena’s players furiously protested an alleged offside. In the middle of the tumultuous chaos, Aranda expelled the Argentine midfielder Rodrigo Riep. While the visitors continued with their claim, Riep saw that the referee had dropped the other card, the yellow one. Blind with anger, the former CA River Plate player took the card and, as if he had scissor hands, ripped it into a thousand pieces. “I broke it because I was really furious, I didn’t even think about it, it was instinctual, I left it in pieces yes, and the card was made of plastic, but I was so mad and felt so wronged, that it felt like cardboard,” Riep said. The consequence of this action, though, was that the Disciplinary Court gave the midfielder four suspension matches: one for the foul that motivated his expulsion from the game and three for his unusual reaction. “When I spoke with my old man and told him everything, he told me ‘Kid, they sent you to jail there,’” he said with humor. His Italian colleague Fernando d’Ercoli had a similar, though slightly more “gourmet” attitude: after being thrown out in the ASD Pianta-ASD Ronta FC Arpax match, played in 1989 in a regional league, d’Ercoli snatched the red card from the ref…and ate it!
Meanwhile, Englishman Darren Painter’s red card protest in November 1999 was a bit more disgusting. Defender for Buckland Athletic FC of the Berkshire League, Painter approached the ref who had shown him the red card, took off his shorts, and urinated him! Of course, the foul reaction did not go unnoticed: Painter was thrown out of the league—and his own club—for life, and also from his own club.
RED CARD SUBSTITUTIONS
On February 8, 2000, in Prenton Park, the host team, Tranmere Rovers FC (part of the Premier Division) defeated Sunderland AFC of the Premier League, 1-0, in the fourth round of the FA English Cup thanks to a goal by Wayne Allison in the 25th minute. A few minutes from the end, with Sunderland rallying against the Rovers in pursuit of the equalizer, defender Clint Hill committed a bad foul inches from the Tranmere penalty box. The referee Rob Harris called the foul and expelled Hill because of his violent play. Coincidentally, a few seconds earlier, coach John Aldridge had ordered Stephen Frail to substitute in for Hill. When the defender approached the middle line, fourth official David Unsworth, who had not noticed the ejection, allowed Frail to enter for his teammate. All the confusion overwhelmed Harris, who didn’t see the sub join the defenders. Tranmere continued with their eleven players for a few seconds until visiting coach Peter Reid alerted the referee. Seeing his mistake and that of his assistant, Harris sent Frail back to his place among the substitutes. Tranmere finally won, 1-0.
Two days later, the competition supervisory committee confirmed the result and absolved the winning team of any fault. Meanwhile, the committee suspended the referee for a match despite his having been assigned to officiate the cup clash between Gillingham FC and Bradford City AFC. The committee justified the mistake by saying that “the referee and his assistants were under a considerable level of pressure,” and told Sunderland that “their decisions are final, and for the good of the game, they must be accepted.” The red-and-white club not only accepted them, but, in an unusual gesture, Peter Reid told the press СКАЧАТЬ