Things got out of hand in this regional league game in Córdoba between Juventud Cátolica de Río Segundo and Sportivo Laguna Larga. The incident kicked off when the Juventud players took exception to a decision by referee Hugo Vega and one of them hit the official. When the linesmen and other officials tried to intervene they also came under attack. Vega received a serious head injury and was taken to hospital recovering consciousness in the ambulance. He later said that it was the first time he had felt fear in his ten years as a football referee. The police are studying the incident to consider whether charges can be brought against any of the players.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
After a weekend of controversial refereeing decisions in round six of the 2011 Clausura Gimnasia y Esgrima played Tigre in the early Monday evening kick-off. The first half of this relegation six pointer finished one apiece after a well taken goal from Diego Morales for the visitors and an equally good equaliser for Gimnasia from Juan Neira.
Referee Germán Delfino seemed to be strongly favouring the home side, especcially after ignoring their penalty appeals for a blatant shirt pull and shove on Denis Straqualursi. In the 57th minute Delfino really made his mark on the game, deciding to send off Tigre's Martín Galmarini and cancel the goal he had just scored for an imaginary handball offence, the replay shows that Galmarini's hand was up but nowhere near the ball. Note the disingenuous nature of the Gimnasia defender Aguero appealing for handball when he knew that he himself headed the ball towards his own goal.
What made it even worse is that the ten men of Tigre conceded another goal and lost the game 2-1.
The sixth round of the Clausura 2011 tournament in Argentina featured a number of highly controversial moments from referees and linesmen. The first big mistake was the cancellation of this goal which would have been Mauro Camoranesi's first goal since his return to Argentine football after thirteen years playing abroad in Mexico, Italy and Germany. As the replay shows he was clearly well onside when the free kick was struck.
On 20 March 2011 Olimpo de Bahía Blanca recoreded their first ever away win against Boca Juniors with a 0-2 victory at the once intimidating Bombonera. The result saw Olimpo jump to the top of the Clausura 2011 table after Fecha 6 and escape from the relegation places for the first time since the sides met in the corresponding fixture of the Apertura back in September 2010. Had the goal not been incorrectly chalked off Maggiolo would have become the leading goalscorer of the tournament with six goals in six games.
On 20 March Clausura 2011 league leaders Racing Club hosted Estudiantes de La Plata in the 6th round of the tournament. They lost the game 0-1 which allowed Estudiantes to join them on 12 points and Olimpo to leapfrog them both into first position however things could have been completely different had the linesman not incorrectly ruled this Teófilo Gutiérrez offside. Had it not been disallowed Gutiérrez would have become the leading goalscorer of the tournament with six goals and Racing could have finished the weekend as league leaders.
On 12 March 2011 the referee decided to let this Carioca B game between Itaperuna and Aperibeense go ahead despite a large section of the pitch being completely covered with water.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
On 6 May 2010 Peruvian side Alianza Lima travelled to Chile to face Universidad de Chile in the last 16 of the Copa Libertadores. They were 0-1 down from their home leg but had established a 1-2 lead going into injury time at the end of the game and looked set to progess to the quarter finals on goal difference.
When Felipe Seymour fired in a long range shot, the goal looked set to be disallowed as the linesman was flagging, however the referee overruled him and awarded the goal anyway. In retrospect it looks like a poor decision, there was an offside in the build up play and two Universidad de Chile players were offside and in the goalkeeper's line of sight when the shot came in.
The Alianza Lima players and staff were understandably upset and surrounded the referee to complain prompting the Chilean police to come onto the pitch in scenes reminiscent of scenes in the Copa Libertadores semi-final in the same stadium back in 1991 when the Chilean police set about intimidating the Boca Juniors players with dogs instead of clearing the pitch invasion by hundreds of Colo-Colo fans.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
On 21 November 2010 Fluminense faced a tough trip to face São Paulo in the 36th round of the Brasileirão 2010 championship. They had a chance to go back to the top of the table with only two games of the season remaining with a win.
Fluminense established a lead but São Paulo levelled the scores with a lovely goal from Lucas Gaúcho. At this point Fluminense were struggling however the game changed when the referee sent off two of São Paulo's players in a seven minute spell. The first did seem to be a professional foul however after Fluminense won the title their criticspointed to this 2nd red card as a definitive moment in their championship.
Fluminense managed to score 3 goals against the 9 man side and give themselves a 1-4 win and establish a one point advantage with 2 games remaining.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
On 22 July 2007 Colombian forward David Giraldo made an impression on his debut for Millonarios. He was sent off only 10 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
10 October 2010: Brazilian sides Avai and Flamengo were in the last minute of a game with the score tied at 2-2, when a Flamengo fan ran onto the field to remonstrate with the referee, however he was soon decked by a combination of his own team's players and the linesman.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
21 September 2010: In the second leg of the Copa Sudamericana tie between Colombian side Deportes Tolima and Bolivian side Oriente Petrolero the Colombian player Jhon Hurtado jumped recklessly into a challenge with Oriente Petrolero's Paraguayan forward Francisco Argüello which left him with a severely broken leg. It happened right in front of referee Juan Soto, who unbelievably deemed the challenge worthy of only a yellow card.
Tolima held on to win the game 2-0 and eliminated Oriente Petrolero from the competition 2-1 on aggregate.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
17 July 2010: In a Chilean 2nd division fixture between Universidad de Concepción and Rangers de Talca, Rangers' Paraguayan defender José Pedrozo was about to be sent off for his 2nd yellow card when he decided that the best way to escape the booking would be to strangle the referee.
Rangers went on to lose the game 3-0 and Pedrozo received a 27 game suspension.
For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.
On 2 May 2010 Chacarita Juniors faced Estudiantes de La Plata in the 17th round of the Clausura 2010 championship. Both teams needed the win, Chacarita would be as good as relegated without the 3 points and Estudiantes needed the points to stay at the top of the table ahead of Argentinos Juniors and Independiente.
Chacarita took an early lead with a cracking strike from Omar Zarif, but it seemed that the referee was favouring Estudiantes who had already benefited from other dodgy refereeing decisions that season, without which they wouldn't have even been at the top of the table.
When the referee awarded a penalty and sent off Chacarita defender Lisandro López (no not that one) for a blatantly unintentional handball on a shot that was going well wide anyway the Chacarita fans began to riot.
Estudiantes scored the penalty and then made it 2-1 against the 10 men, meanwhile the police had instructed the fire service to hose down the Chacarita fans to cool their tempers. At some point one of the Chacarita fans managed to grab the hose which was quickly hauled into the stand by the fans and turned on the police and firemen to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Estudiantes held on to win the game 2-1 but lost the championship race to Argentinos Juniors, Chacarita Juniors were relegated at the end of the season at the bottom of the relegation table after only accumulating 0.842 points per game.
