Local rec leagues can really get chaotic when you question the referee's calls. And when it comes to soccer games in Russia, doing so can be damn near fatal for the ref.
Take, for example, this non-league soccer game in Russia between the town of Gdov and Porkhov. The game was played in the Pskov region, which is where Porkhov is located. To start the game, Gdov didn't like the idea of a local referee calling the match. Thinking the referee would be biased towards the home squad, the team and the fans made a huge stink about it before the game. Fighting made the first half of play too intense, prompting the 65-year-old referee Nikolai Moschev to call the police in order to stifle any further melees that would possibly ensue. Since the cops didn't show up, Moschev decided to take matters into his own hands by bringing out a stun gun.
As the second half got underway, more fights broke out between the opposing teams. Moschev brandished the stun gun on the players to stop the fighting. Thereafter, one of the players decided to go Bruce Lee on the ref by kicking him in the head, knocking him the fuck out!
You can skip to the 25-second mark in the clip above to see the kick. The referee had to be sent to the hospital where he was reportedly treated for "memory loss, nausea, and dizziness."
The Guardian has more details on this, and a quote from one of the people who witnessed the debacle.
“The level of negativity was getting higher and higher even before the game, with messages left on social networks, insults and threats from both sides,” supporter Evgeny Kuznetsov told local station TV 100.
As for the game itself, there was no victor because it was discontinued due to the apparent decision to use human heads as soccer balls. Can't local Russian amateur soccer league players all just get along?
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[via The Guardian]
