Red cards are a staple of our fair game. While a sending off can turn a contest on its head the threat of getting one keeps matches clean from reckless tackles and absurd behaviour. But one referee in Sweden has perhaps taken that a bit too far.
Adam Lindin Ljungkvist, a player for Pershagen SK in the ninth-tier of Swedish football, was sent off in a recent contest against Jarna SK’s reserves for unsporting behaviour.
His offence? Farting really loudly.
Ljungkvist had already been booked earlier in the contest and, as the game drew to a close, passed wind on the field of play. This action resulted in the player getting a second yellow card and being sent off.
Lungkvist told Swedish media outlet Lanstidningen Sodertalje: “I needed to fart, I had a bad stomach. So I just farted. Then I received a yellow card and then a red.
“I was shocked, it’s the strangest thing I have ever experienced on a football field.
“I asked the referee: ‘What, you can’t fart on the field?’, he replied: ‘No’.
Referee Dany Kako has moved to clear up the strange situation, indicating that players should not receive cautions for breaking wind. However the official felt it was done in a manner that was intended to wind-up the other team.
Kako said: “No one must get a yellow card for farting on the field. Once there was a player who stood and peed next to the pitch. That was also a yellow card.”
“I perceive that it is a provocation against another player. He did it on purpose and it was inappropriate behaviour. Therefore, he received a yellow card.”
It appears that the audibility of Lungkvist’s…action has been the reason behind the booking, and Jarna SK striker Kristoffer Linde has indicated that he heard the fart despite being at the other end of the field.
The forward did admit that the sending off was in bizarre circumstances however, saying: “I was standing a good distance away but I heard the fart loud and clear.
“It was the strangest thing I’ve seen on the field, and I have been playing football since I was eight years old.”
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