A video captured the horrifying moment a football referee allegedly pulls a knife out during a match and stabs a player.
Mobile phone footage taken by an astonished fan captured the horrific scenes as players from two teams stormed around a referee midway through a game in Argentina. But as one player could be seen to start shoving the official, the referee is alleged to have lashed out with a blade, knifing the footballer in the chest.
The player staggered and then started to fall, before other team-mates carried him off the pitch.
The referee, wearing a black strip and a white cap, can be seen jogging off the other way as the footage ends.
The incident unfolded on a pitch in the town of Scholler, on the outskirts of the city of Eldorado, in the province of Misiones, on the afternoon of Saturday, December 2.
Local media later named the stabbed 21-year-old victim only as “Kevin A”, who was reported to have been rushed to hospital with a punctured lung.
The referee alleged to have stabbed the player was named as 62-year-old Remigio Armoa.
Police later arrested Armoa and seized the knife it is said was used to attack the player, with a photograph of the weapon released to the media in Argentina.
The player’s uncle, who has also not been named, told reporters: “Kevin is miraculously alive. For the family, it is a very delicate moment because he is the Messi of the family.
“He is a boy well gifted for football, thank God he had the opportunity to be in a club like Chacarita.” The uncle added the 21-year-old was on the verge of leaving football to take care of his seven-month-old baby and now they want justice for what happened.
He said: “The family is shocked and the situation is difficult for us because we always go to watch his games, we are fans and he is a young worker who has just become a father. All he wants is to have fun on the playing field and we never believed that he could get stabbed with a perforation in the lung from a soccer game.”
Police investigations are ongoing.
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