Crazy scenes in a Brazilian amateur league match over the weekend where a referee pulled out a gun and brandished it towards the players he was officiating.

It went down in a match between Brumadinho and Amantes da Bola after referee Gabriel Murta claimed he had been punched and kicked by an Amantes de Bola player. Murta is a full time policeman and claimed that he had brought the gun along to the match as self defence because he had been attacked by players previous to this as well.

Fortunately, the other officials were able to calm him down before he did anything stupid and actually used the gun, but man this is not something I would want to see happen at any level of the game. In fact, I wouldn’t want to see someone pull a gun out in any situation, be it sporting or otherwise.

Featured Image VIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3gwkaMqIU

Murta is now having his ability to referee psychologically assessed and will likely have his officiating responsibilities taken away from him. To be honest you can’t really blame the referee/amateur footballing association/whatever for doing that because it’s absolutely ridiculous behaviour, but when you consider this story about a Brazilian amateur referee getting decapitated following a match you can’t really blame Murta for being too careful when he steps out onto the field either.

The sooner that country sorts itself out the better.