To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

​Brazilian Football Match Abandoned After Too Many Players Given Red Cards

​Brazilian Football Match Abandoned After Too Many Players Given Red Cards

Eventually the ref called an end to the game due to the contravention of the laws of the not-so-beautiful game.

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Usually a football match is pretty exciting if there's just one red card, but players in Brazil managed to take things to a whole new level when so many footballers were given a red card that the game had to be abandoned - with one team even reduced to just six players.

You may think things got pretty ugly when you lost the plot on FIFA against your mate and ended up trying to get as many players sent off as possible, but it really does pale in comparison here.

Vitoria and Bahia are both teams from the same region of Brazil, not far from Salvador. That means that any match between the two is seen as a local derby - and we all know the kind of rivalry that comes with that.

Credit: Vitoria online

Funnily enough, the match had even been labelled 'Ba-Vi' of peace, in order to help promote a peaceful vibe both on and off the field.

Before the game Vitoria coach Vagner Mancini said on the club's website: "The important thing is to be focused. On the pitch both teams play by the same rules, with 11 on each side."

But the game soon spiralled into a mass brawl, with a total of seven red cards dished out. It was the seventh - Vitoria's fifth - that concluded the match well before full time.

In addition to that, two visiting players who weren't even on the pitch were sent off, meaning a total of nine players were shown red after chaos descended.

Image: Flash Score
Image: Flash Score

Globoesporte also tweeted to say that battered Bahia players were advised to lodge official complaints with the police:

It also claims that it came about because of one footballer's celebration dance:

Eventually the ref called an end to the game due to the contravention of the laws of the not-so-beautiful game.

The official FIFA laws state: "Although a match may not start if either team consists of fewer than seven players, the minimum number of players in a team required for a match to continue is left to the discretion of member associations.

"However, it is the opinion of the International FA Board that a match should not continue if there are fewer than seven players in either team.

"If a team has fewer than seven players because one or more players has deliberately left the field of play, the referee is not obliged to stop the match and the advantage may be played.

"In such cases, the referee must not allow the match to resume after the ball has gone out of play if a team does not have the minimum number of seven players."

Bahia were retrospectively awarded a 3-0 victory, which we're betting can't have helped the bad mood in the Vitoria changing rooms afterwards.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: SPORT, Football News, Football, Brazil