5 most ridiculous red cards in football history

#2. Hakan Unsal vs. Brazil, 2002

From referees losing the plot to an official who was just plain conned. Turkey’s 2002 World Cup group stage tie with Brazil had been simmering for 87 minutes with the score tied at 1-1, when a questionable penalty was awarded to Brazil due to a foul from Alpay that clearly occurred outside the box – Brazil’s Luizao fell into the box and the official mistakenly pointed to the spot. That allowed Rivaldo to put Brazil into the lead, but his next move was truly shameful.

Brazil earned a corner kick and with Rivaldo in position to take it, Turkey’s Hakan Unsal decided to kick the ball directly at him in a flash of anger. It was a stupid move, no question, but the ball clearly struck Rivaldo on the thigh. Rather than ignore it, the Brazilian hit the floor clutching his face, like he’d been hit with sniper fire from the crowd. Despite the linesman being directly in front of the incident, referee Kim Young Joo was still taken in by Rivaldo’s acting and showed Unsal a needless second yellow.

Rivaldo went on to admit that the ball had only hit his leg and that he duped the referee, but was relatively unrepentant, claiming that “these things happen in football” and largely blaming Unsal for kicking the ball at him in the first place. He had somewhat of a point given Unsal shouldn’t have kicked the ball at him, but it was still a ridiculous sending off with an inexperienced referee being conned in extraordinary fashion.