<> on September 29, 2015 in Barcelona, Spain.

The Bayer Leverkusen/Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga game was stopped for a very unusual reason as Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt refused to leave the game after getting sent off by the referee due to what he felt was a bad call. When the manager refused to leave, the referees called his bluff and walked off, seemingly abandoning the game at 65 minutes with Dortmund up 1-0.

This sparked some confusion among everyone and especially to the team Twitter accounts who had the task to document what was going on during the game.

After almost 10 minutes and referees talked to both teams, players walked back out, Schmidt was off and play resumed whereas Dortmund eventually won by that same 1-0 score. Schmidt is likely going to see a pretty serious penalty for his actions.

This was a rather strange situation but it was a situation where the referees had to go this drastic measure to have someone follow an order. Referees get a lot of criticism and sometimes when they make a bad call, that’s warranted, but what the referee says, goes. And if the referee is sending you off, you can vent your frustration and let the referee know you do not appreciate his judgment but that usually ends with the player or manager getting sent off.

It had to take a little bit longer for the inevitable to happen but in the end, the game continued.

[Guardian/FOX Sports]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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