Norwegian Gent Nets Red For Protesting Own Penalty

Words never seen before, possibly never to be seen again: a player was sent off for protesting his own won penalty.

Granted, it was in the Norwegian fifth division, where things like glory, acclaim and riches take the backseat of a bicycle to a nice postgame nap. Frankly, the Norwegian fifth could be equal to walking down to the closest green patch of your urban space. Nonetheless, it’s an exception gesture, and one would hope it gets tacked on the locker of [insert the name of your favorite diver here].

This is one of those “cell phone camera plus TV psychic nearby” situations, thus no video appears available at the moment.

Talat Abunima was playing for Sandved against Ild when he went down in the box. “I went past an Ild player and then tripped over my own feet. It was unbelievably clumsy of me and when the referee pointed to the spot I felt I had to speak out,” Abunima told local newspaper Sandnesposten.
Referee Nedzad Munjic disagreed, telling news website VG Nett (www.vg.no): “It was a clear penalty. The player got it all wrong – I don’t think the players know the rules properly. And when I’ve blown the whistle, I can’t change my mind.”

Munjic first gave Abunima a yellow card for protesting and when the 36-year-old continued to argue against the decision to award him a spot kick, he was sent off.

The fair play didn’t end there – nor did the madness.

With Sandved leading 3-1, player-coach Oyvind Svenning took the spot kick, deliberately sending it wide. “It was the right thing to do,” he told reporters.

But the drama did not end there. Ild withdrew a player to make the sides even again and were then awarded two late penalties by Munjic. They converted both to secure a 3-3 draw. “The guy who missed on purpose complained a lot about the penalty that led to the 3-3 goal,” the referee added. “I don’t really understand that. First he shoots wide on purpose, then he complains when the other team scores. It’s hopeless.”

Who says quality equates to entertainment value? Sounds like the perfect evening of football with the stadium blasting the Benny Hill theme on loop.

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Category: Europe