Clericus Cup Controversy: Was it a dive or was he praying?

Another international football tournament, another controversial final. The inaugural Clericus Cup final was played this past weekend in Rome with Redemptoris Mater College defeating Pontifical Lateran University 1-0 in front of a boisterous crowd that chanted in Latin throughout the match.

In the end it wasn’t a headbutt or even a hand of God that left a black stain on this holy endeavor, but rather the very pagan act of diving.

But passions run high, even under a dog collar, and when the referee whistled for a penalty in the second half of the Clericus cup final, tempers boiled over. Students from the Pontifical Lateran University squared up angrily to the hapless official, insisting that the Costa Rican striker for Redemptoris Mater college had dived in the box, and while the language was not as purple as it can be in the premiership, words were had.

“You couldn’t even ref a game back in the parish,” one Lateran player reportedly hissed at the match official as protests continued after the final whistle.

Oh snap. Isn’t that how the Crusades started?

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Category: World Football