An amateur soccer match in Brazil turned into a horrific, ugly scene last week when a referee was beheaded on the field after he stabbed and killed a player.
Match referee Octavio da Silva Catanhede Jordan had issued a red card to Josenir dos Santos Abreu in a northeast Brazilian soccer game on June 30, but the player was apparently fed up with the call and continued arguing with the referee, refusing to leave the field at the Pius XII, Maranhao.
Then, the scene got very ugly.
Jordan reportedly had a knife with him, and the 20-year-old referee began stabbing Santos Abreu multiple times on the field. The 31-year-0ld player was pronounced dead when he later arrived to the hospital, but not before the scene at the match got even more chaotic.
In response to Jordan’s attack on Santos Abreu, several spectators — presumably family and friends — fled from the stands and onto the field, where they attacked the referee, decapitated and quartered him and eventually hung his head on a stake.
One man has reportedly been arrested in connection to the attack on the referee. The investigation is ongoing and suspects are being questioned, according to Brazilian police chief Valter Costa.
“Reports of witnesses have indicated some people that were in place at the time of the fact,” Costa said. “We will identify and hold accountable all those involved. A crime will never justify another. Actions like this do not collaborate with the legality of a state law.”
The story is bad publicity for Brazil, which hosts the 2014 World Cup next summer.
