Dirty TackleSwiss league gives amateur footballer a 50-year ban for kicking ball in referee's face
Swiss fourth division player Ricardo Ferreira has been banned indefinitely after kicking a ball in a referee's face and squirting water at him. For the league's computer system purposes, the ban has been set at 50 years, which means Ferreira might be able to play again when he's 78 years old.
Suddenly Luis Suarez doesn't feel like complaining so much about his four-month ban for biting.
From the Guardian:
According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, the defender Ricardo Ferreira of Portugal Futebol Clube was an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat by SC Worb in the local Bern league. But it was not until after the match that he entered the fray, kicking the ball in the referee’s face and then hurling insults as the official made his way to the tunnel before squirting him with water.
“We do not want such a player in our league,” said Robert Breiter, the lawyer of Switzerland’s amateur football league. “Unfortunately we encounter such cases about once a year.”
Like Suarez, Ferreira has prior offenses, though. In 2009, he slapped the whistle out of a referee's mouth to earn a 12-month ban and has missed a total of 45 matches over the years due to various abuses of opponents and refs. So while 50 years might sound harsh, it seems like the guy is just an unrelenting jerkface.
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is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter! Follow @BrooksDT
