The Ironic Clap at the Referee

Clapping at the ref? Didn’t know clapping in the face of the referee was worthy of a straight red card. Well, in the Serie A, during a derby match between two Italian giants, it is.

Lucio got a deserved yellow card for the dive, but Wesley Sneijder in no way deserved to get a red card for his ironic clap, perhaps a yellow but not a red. It didn’t matter though, as Inter Milan held on to win the game 2-1.

What did Jose Mourinho have to say about the red card and the game:

“It was a strange game. I think we all understand that it was no coincidence that he [the referee] showed the red card to [Wesley] Sneijder. I have realized that they are not going to allow us to wrap this title up. But we were perfect. We would have won this game even with seven men. Maybe with six we would have struggled, but we would have won with seven.”

Incidentally, Sneijder happened to be wearing the new Nike T90 Laser III boots, along with his teammate Maicon. Yeah, those green and red ones that aren’t all that pretty to look at. Not really the colors you’re used to seeing on soccer shoes, more so on Christmas wreaths.

Here’s Rio Ferdinand clapping at the ref after a match.