Everyone knows you run the risk of being punished when you mouth off to a referee, but what happens when it’s your butt cheeks that do the talking? A Swedish player recently discovered that to at least one ref, hot air emitting from your backside can earn you a red card just as quickly.
Adam Lindin Ljungkvist was in the middle of a match in which he’d already picked up a yellow card when, as he described it, a tummy ache caused him to rip off a nice big fart. The referee overheard the rumblings from below, and was so perturbed by them that he showed Ljungkvist a second yellow and sent him off. Ljungkvist sought council with the ref:
“I asked the referee, ‘What, am I not allowed to break wind a little?’ ‘No,’ he replied … I don’t get it but maybe he thought I farted in my hand and threw the fart at him. But I did not. […] I spoke to the referee afterwards, I was annoyed, but there were no bad words. I just said he was a buffoon.”
The ref wasn’t the only one to pick up on Ljungkvist’s flatulence, as an opposing player also noted the unmistakable sound from a ways away:
Opposition striker Kristoffer Linde told the paper: “I was standing a good distance away but I heard the fart loud and clear. It’s the strangest thing I’ve seen on a pitch, and I’ve been playing football since I was eight years old.”
Later asked by a local paper to explain himself, the referee, Dany Kako, described his thinking and pointed out that he has a history of punishing similar (in his perception) incidents strictly:
“I perceived it as deliberate provocation. He did it on purpose and it was inappropriate. Therefore, he received a yellow card. […] Once there was a player who stood and peed next to the pitch. I showed him a yellow card, too.”
[Guardian]
h/t James
