Turkish soccer game descends into chaos with player giving referee a red card

There’s a lot going on here and we’ll do our best to unpack it.

In the 87th minute of Trabzonspor’s Turkish Super Lig match against Galatasaray, they gave away a penalty. The referee -- who had shown red cards to two Trabzon players earlier in the match -- gave it after Galatasaray striker Umut Bulut appealed for the penalty, then fist-pumped. Trabzon is mad and their protest goes off the rails very, very quickly.

Luis Cavanda shoves the ref, for which he’s (correctly) given a red card. During the skirmish, the ref drops his card, so Salih Dursun picks it up and shows it to the ref! He got sent off, too. Galatasaray went on to make the penalty kick and win the match.

If you’re wondering how many red cards a team needs to get to forfeit, it’s five. Hilariously, this scenario played out last season in Turkey, when a referee refused to send off Fenerbahce’s Volkan Demirel for a clear red card offense because it would have ended the game.

The Turkish Super Lig is amazing.