Argentine Soccer Team Orchestrates On-Field Sit-In To Protest Red Cards

In the second leg of their promotion playoff final against Alvarado, players from third-tier Argentine soccer club San Jorge de Tucumán decided to protest what they considered two unfair first-half red cards by sitting down in the middle of the field and refusing to move or play. This lasted about ten minutes before the referee finally called the game off, awarding the win, and a spot in the second division, to Alvarado.

The mayhem starts at 5:25 in the video below (corresponding to about the 50th minute of the game), and includes a reporter just walking onto the field to interview San Jorge defender Maximiliano Guardia, who kept repeating “It’s a robbery”:

San Jorge captain Ricardo Tapia went on to say that “it was a robbery what they did to us in the first half. We don’t deserve that, they robbed us in our faces, and so we made a decision [to protest] together.” Tapia also said that he heard from the club president that he wants to remove San Jorge from the third division following the protest.

Just another day in South American soccer.