Although it is a regular occurrence for players or coaches to see red cards on the football field, this time the football world witnessed a strange and rare incident. The referee directly showed a red card to a spectator and ordered him to leave the field for creating chaos on the field. This incident took place in Scotland’s fourth-tier professional football league ‘League Two’.
This dramatic scene was seen in the match between Edinburgh City and Stirling Albion last Saturday (January 10). In the match, Russell McLean scored a hat-trick and Stirling won 4-1. However, in the 86th minute of the match, referee Josh Hay took all the limelight. As a spectator in the gallery continued to disrupt the match, the referee took out a red card from his pocket and held it up to him and ordered the security guards to remove the spectator.
According to a report by the Scottish media ‘The National’, the referee did this in a somewhat humorous way, which provided food for laughter among the rest of the spectators in the stadium. While it is unclear whether the fan was actually ejected from the stadium, the referee’s gesture quickly went viral on social media.
The controversy began when Stirling Albion posted a picture of the incident on their official ‘X’ (Twitter) handle. One football fan was harshly critical, writing, “The referee could have told the security guards that showing the fan a red card was just an attempt to assert himself.”
On the other hand, an Edinburgh fan vented his anger at the referee’s wrong decision, commenting, “The referee should have shown himself a red card. From the handball miss to the penalty not being awarded – the referee’s decisions throughout the match were disappointing.”
