This week’s column is dedicated to an interesting – could be looked at as amusing but also depressing at the same time – incident that took place last Sunday in Brazil.

I first read about it on the Tuesday edition of the Gazzetta dello Sport’s and my first reaction was that it was some joke. It looked somewhat impossible to happen even though there was a small picture that did not shed much light on exactly what occurred.

However, after watching the video of this incident via internet,I had to believe everything and immediately decided I had to write about it in this week’s column.

It happened last Sunday during a game from the Brazilian FPF cup. Santacruzense were hosting Club Atletico Sorocaba at the Santa Cruz di Rio Pardo stadium. The visitors were leading 1-0 after 89 minutes when Santacruzense won a free-kick which was taken quickly with a pass to the right winger, Alex, who subsequently kicked a low cross which was met by a striker, Samuel, whose shot clearly hit the outer net on the goalkeeper’s left. The ball ended just a metre or so to the left almost on the touchline.

At this moment, a ball boy, who was standing very close to the goal on the same side where the ball ended, came up with another ball and, instead of giving the ball to the Sorocaba custodian, Eduardo, he slyly kicked this other ball into the goal and then retrieved the original match ball and went coolly back to his place.

The goalkeeper was a bit taken aback with this gesture but then proceeded to place the ball in its place so that he could go ahead and kick the goal kick. At this instance, however, match referee Silvia Regina de Oliveira came towards him accompanied by a Santacruzense player who was pointing to the net (maybe he was stating that there was a tear in the net?). The referee looked at the net, then at the assistant referee and, to the great surprise of the Sorocaba players, awarded the goal to the Santacruzense forward Samuel de Carvalho Almeida.

In fact, assistant referee Marco Antonio de Andrade Motta Jr. gave the go-ahead to awarding the goal.

The Sorocaba full-back went almost berserk and protested greatly and finished sent-off. The game did not continue because although initially the Sorocaba players moved towards the centre circle to restart the match, they then eventually went wild running after both the ball boy and assailing the assistant referee and thus the game was suspended.

The referee, Silvia Regina de Oliveira, was immediately suspended by the Brazilian Football Federation. Ironically de Oliveira was probably the best-known woman in Brazilian football after becoming the first woman to referee in the Brazilian top division. She was also the first female referee to officiate a South American Cup (Santos and Sao Caetano) and had been a FIFA international referee since 2001.

This clearly shows that this referee, who is 42 years old, and had been refereeing since 1985, was no novice and had much at stake. I want to make it clear that I am not trying to attack female referees as I would have done the same had there been a male referee and after all, it seems that the biggest mistake was done by the assistant referee – who was a male – who ran to half-pitch after the ball-boy had put the ball in the goal thereby signalling a valid goal.

On the other hand, the federation has decided to wait until the assistant referee leaves hospital, due to the injuries suffered, before handing him his disciplinary penalty.

The federation has also opened an inquiry into this incident even though the video intake shows clearly that the ball originally never went into the net.

Funnily enough, Samuel who was attributed with this ‘ghost’ goal, cheekily said when interviewed by a local radio station after the match, "I kicked the ball, if the referee awarded the goal, then it is not our problem".

On concluding, I firmly believe that one should reflect well on such an incident. It might seem funny at first but one should see the gravity of the situation as there is a gross lack of sportsmanship involved and all the true values of sport are lost when such things happen because fair play should be shown by all and sundry. In this instance, I feel the home side should be well penalised for its un-sportsmanlike actions.

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