A referee in Brazil is under heavy fire from the soccer world after pulling a gun on players during a match, according to the Mirror.
After a red card was issued to a player, his fellow teammates started kicking the ref. Feeling threatened, referee Gabriel Murta ran to the locker room and retrieved his handgun. He quickly came back to the field and drew his gun, but was stopped by a fellow ref and a goalkeeper. The video below shows a closer representation of what took place, courtesy of the Mirror.
The video came from a fan's phone, but it is still clear that a gun was pulled by Murta. The player who initially kicked him is seen running off the field once he realized Murta held a gun in his hand. Murta is a police officer by day, thus the reason for having quick access to a gun.
After the issue was resolved, referees' association boss Giuliano Bozzano issued an official statement on the matter.
"The Minais Gerais Football Federation has already summoned the referee and a psychologist to a meeting, and I'm going to talk with him today. On the basis of that conversation and his account of events and the results of the psychological assessment, I'll decide what, if any, measures to take. What's happened is obviously not a common occurrence and I don't want to rush into anything. At the moment it happened, he's opted for getting his gun because, in his view, it was a question of controlling a situation," stated Bozzano.
Even though the match was taking place in a lower division of Brazilian soccer, this incident proves that soccer refs must go through a stricter application and vetting process. That way issues like this one will not occur more often.
