By Chris Wright
Well well. This is a new one on us. Over in the Greek amateur leagues it would appear that a new scheme is being pioneered that allows referees to show players a blue card for good sportsmanship.
Here we see a Tsiklitiras Pylos striker by the name of George Kaldis (eventually) owning up to scoring a goal – on an absolute dog of a pitch – against AE Longa with his hand, with the referee awarding his honesty with a blue card…
Given both the initial celebration and the length of time it took Kaldis to confess his sin, we’d argue that maybe ‘fair play’ wasn’t the first thing on his mind – but hey ho, a blue card’s a blue card at the end of the day.
Apparently the ‘blue’ is available to the referee to openly reward public a player or coach who promotes fair play and is used principally for the crowd’s benefit.
We’re not entirely sure what kind of advantage the card carries. All we can glean is that it is little more than a gesture for the referee to mark a player’s sporting behaviour – though maybe it also entitles a player to a free raffle ticket or 20% off his next purchase of dishwasher tablets?
Who knows.
(Another cracking spot from those guys over at 101GG via Sport 24)