Harsh but fair!
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:37 pm
Excessive diving is one of the curses of the modern game, but a referee at a Belgian lower league match has gone way too far in trying to redress the balance.
Julien Lecomte of Hainaut provincial side RSC Templeuvois was playing in the clash against USG Quevy last week when he was elbowed in the neck by an opponent and landed badly in the penalty area. Here's what happened next, courtesy of this clip from local TV:
If you picked out the distinctly non-Flemish sounding word "knocked out" from that video, you'll have realised what happened: Lecomte, far from feigning injury, was seriously hurt, with hospital scans later revealing that he had three displaced vertebrae and was suffering from concussion.
With the player down and unmoving on the floor, clearly out cold, nobody at Templeuve's Stade de la Providence thought that there was any question of play acting. Nobody that is except the referee, who had clearly decided that Lecomte was trying to hoodwink him into giving a spot kick.
And having made his mind up, he showed almost admirable crassness in refusing to change his mind: determined to punish the 'offender', he dished out a red card to the unconscious Lecomte even as he was being carried off to hospital on a stretcher.
For what it's worth, 10-man Templeuvois ended up losing 2-1 to remain second in the table, while USG Quevy's victory saw them climb to fifth.