Soccer over the years has seen some wild on-field incidents involving the players playing and managers standing on the sidelines. There have been incidents when a club’s managerial team has protested over the on-field decisions. One such incident took place in the recently held Serie A match between Gremio and Corinthians Paulista.
The Serie A match was played between two teams separated by an 18-point gap in the league’s table standings. Gremio had 59 points to their name so far this Serie A season. Comparedly, Corinthians were well below their opponents with a sum of 41 points.
According to the reports, the match saw a red card incident inside the first ten minutes. Corinthians player Bruno Mendez was booked by the referee for a controversial passage of the play. However, the red card shown to the player didn’t go down well with the club’s Director of Football Alessandro Nunes.
🇧🇷😳 Corinthians’ director of football, Alessandro Nunes, tried to storm into the VAR room after the sending off of one of his players…pic.twitter.com/VfJX8eGD6p
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) November 14, 2023
Reports suggest that Alessandro Nunes invaded the VAR official’s room to showcase his dissatisfaction with the on-field red card decision. The online surfaced video, shows Alessandro being hurdling towards the VAR official’s room and trying to get into it. The people around the room and the other designated officials however try to stop him.
Fans around the world have reacted to this incident in the Brazil league by stating their opinions. A fan reacted by commenting – “This is WILD, It’s like a backstage WWE scene”. Another one chipped in and inflicted –“Another entitled pr*ck!”. One of the fans ironically wrote – “Love South American soccer, it’s fu**ing nuts”.
This is WILD… It’s like a backstage WWE scene 😂😂😂
— Betmate (@betmate_app) November 14, 2023
One of the followers stated – “Hence why the Premier League doesn’t have VAR at the ground”. It can be grasped from the fans’ reactions that they have expressly inducted their opinions regarding the incident without holding themselves back.
The red card incident in the Corinthians vs. Gremio match
One of the Corinthians players Bruno Mendez was in the final third and close to the goal just when a Gremio’s defender tried to stop him from the back. However, Bruno fell onto the ground before taking a shot toward the goal as a result of the blocking attempt made by the opposition’s defender in the Serie A match.
— timãoehoh (@timao_eh_oh) November 14, 2023
Bruno Mendez along with his teammates seemed convinced that it was a foul and they should’ve been awarded a penalty for it. However, the match officials had other opinions regarding the incident. It was deemed that the player intentionally dived inside the box to make the incident look like a foul and to win a penalty.
So, instead of being awarded a penalty for their protest, the referee decided to send off Bruno by showing him a red card. However, if one watches the reported video of the red card incident, it can be deemed that Gremio’s defender does try to block the progressing Corinthians player, but makes very minimal contact for the player to go down like that.