In the biggest story to come out of European football this summer, a Swedish defender was sent off while playing in a ninth-tier match for farting near the opposition striker.
According to The Guardian, Adam Lindin Ljungkvist, the left-back for Jarna SK’s reserve team, was shown a second yellow card for “deliberate provocation” and “unsportsmanlike behavior” after farting in the general direction of opposition striker Kristoffer Linde.
“I had a bad stomach, so I simply let go,” Ljungkvsit said. “I asked the referee, ‘What, am I not allowed to break wind a little?’ ‘No,’ he replied . . . I don’t get it but maybe he thought I farted in my hand and threw the fart at him. But I did not.”
The referee, Dany Kako, explained his actions by saying, “I perceived it as deliberate provocation. He did it on purpose and it was inappropriate.”
To be fair to Mr. Kako, the offended striker confirmed that he “heard the fart loud and clear.”
Ljungkvist defended his actions by saying, "I spoke to the referee afterwards, I was annoyed, but there were no bad words. I just said he was a buffoon."
People have developed post traumatic stress disorder for less. Just ask Juan Carlos Osorio and Mexico. Coincidentally, Osorio described Mexico’s humiliating 7-0 Copa America defeat as “an accident of soccer”.
Adam Lindin Ljungkvist and his rectum can only commiserate.
(H/T: The Guardian)
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