February 20 – Respect the Ref
THIS season has seen Premier League and FA bosses launch the ‘Respect the Ref’ programme which is designed to give the much-hounded men in black a break from the petulant millionaires that they are tasked with keeping under control.
Following some distinctly dodgy refereeing performances this season we could debate how much respect some of these referees deserve until the cows come home, but if the likes of serial ref-hasselers John Terry and the like saw what happened in South Africa today in 1999 then we think they’d soon change their tune.
The referee in question was Lebogang Petrus Mokgethi who was overseeing a match between Hartbeesfontein Wallabies and Try Agains. When the Try Agains proved their moniker was apt scored to and cut their opponents lead to 2-1, a number of Hartbeesfontein fans invaded the pitch in protest. The game was said to have been the subject of some hefty unlicensed betting and amidst the scenes of chaos the home side’s skipper Isaac Mkhwetha went to get a knife.
Rather than pull out a red card, Mokgethi reached for a more potent weapon: a 9mm pistol that a friend of his in the crowd was looking after. Witnesses said that when Mkhwetha lunged at the ref, Mokgethi shot the 20-year-old in the chest, killing him shortly afterwards.
Remarkably, five years later South Africa was reeling from another similar incident when a match between two teams in Kenton-on-Sea lead to the referee fatally shooting the coach of Marcelle in the chest and also hitting the hands of two players with the same bullet.
See some more agressive refereeing below and see what other going-ons were going-on today by clicking here. If you’re all over Twitter lark than follow our updates and random musings here. Until tomorrow footy fans…
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