Incredible incident sees referee kick out at player, then send him off

All of the talk in football recently has been about the debut of Video Assisted Refereeing, which was first used in a match in the UK in January.

That game, Brighton against Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, saw the technology help referee Andre Mariner correctly award a goal to the home side after initial concerns there had been a handball, with the Video Assistant Referee ruling that there had been no contact with striker Glenn Murray’s hand.

However, someone grateful that VAR wasn’t available at their game is Tony Chapron, a French referee who took part in remarkable scenes at Nantes’ Stade de la Beaujoire on Sunday night.

The home side were trailing 1-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in added time at the end of the match when Chapron and Nantes defender Diego Carlos accidentally collided in the middle of the pitch while Carlos was tracking back to help his team defend.

Incredibly, after tumbling over, Chapron then proceeded to kick out in retaliation at Carlos - before then sending him off, awarding him a second yellow card. For some reason, PSG were then awarded a free-kick.

Carlos initially protested, but then trudged off the field looking bewildered. The match then finished 1-0 shortly afterwards.

Take a look at the incident below:

Read more: The 15 worst refeering mistakes ever

Nantes president Waldemar Kita was incensed after the game, calling for Chapron to be banned for six months.

Kita told L’Equipe: “I received 20 SMS from all over the world telling me that this referee is a joke. What do you want me to say to you? If I talk too much, I will be summoned by an ethics commission. We have no right to say anything.

“It’s still scandalous to see that. We give a red card to a player who did nothing. Where are we? He has to go back to school. Chapron has to rest and get a massage, it works like that now, we cannot see him. I’m waiting for the green light, otherwise I’ll be killed. It’s amateurism.

“Sincerely, I think he did not do it on purpose. I do not want to believe he did it on purpose. At least, you apologise but you do not give a red card, it’s not serious. We still have to find a solution, because there is a problem in all this. It makes me laugh at the end. I have never seen that before. He should be suspended for six months. If we did it, we would be banned for six months.”

Nantes summed it up on their own Twitter account:

While fans were already cheekily predicting the next stage of proceedings:

Still, at least Carlos didn’t manage to make the situation worse:

(Image: Rex)