A Soccer Player In Argentina Shot And Killed A Referee After He Was Given A Red Card

YardBarker-  A soccer game played between neighbors in Argentina has ended in bloodshed.A player shot and killed a referee and wounded another player Sunday in the Campo de la Ribera area of Cordoboa, Argentina, according to The Mirror’s Rita Sobot.

Police say referee Cesar Flores, 48, showed the assailant a red card for making a heavy tackle on an opponent. The player then retrieved a gun from his bag and shot Flores three times. He also wounded another player, 25-year-old Walter Zarate, before fleeing the scene.

“It all happened during the match,” a police spokesman said. “We don’t know what happened with the referee but the player was angry and went to get his gun and killed him.”

The shooting appears to have taken place during an amateur game that the Argentina’s Football Federation might not have been organized.
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If so, this looks like a case of social problems in the South American nation spilling onto the field of play, with tragic consequences.




​Let's all just turn our brains off for a quick second here. Let's forget that an innocent human being is dead because of a call in a soccer match. Let's forget that he probably left a wife widowed and some children fatherless. It shouldn't be too hard. This happened in Argentina. I would have to brush up on my Argentinian history before I definitively say this, but I don't think I have ever cried for Argentina before, so I am certainly not going to start now.

I'm going to tell you a secret guys, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. Ready? Okay, here goes...

This is actually a good thing for soccer. Scratch that, it's not a good thing that this official was shot dead. I think we can all agree that that is very disheartening. However, it may very well have positive ramifications. How many times have we all made the same joke about the same player that was killed after scoring a goal in his own net? That happened like 20+ years ago. I was getting mighty tired of referring to it every time I wanted to stick up for soccer's worldly reputation as a blood sport. A single murder can only justify so many players tripping over a blade of grass and holding onto their leg like they tore every ligament in their lower body, and I think we had just about reached that threshold. One executed official later and I feel comfortable saying that soccer is bad ass again. You can't -in good faith- call soccer a pussy sport if they continually have in-game casualties. I genuinely think that the key to futbol maintaining it's relevance in the United States is a good old fashioned homicide every quarter century or so. That may sound outlandish, but the World Cup has proven that it takes something really rare to get is to pay attention to soccer, and there's nothing more rare than an assassination during a sporting event.


P.S. Bet this hockey ref that took a full beer to the junk is feeling a little bit better about his job now.