Next year Brazil is set to host two of the biggest soccer matches in history (the 2016 Olympics and the World Cup) and given this week’s show of raw emotion, we’re not sure whether we should be excited or fear for our lives. In a northern Brazil soccer game last week, referee Otávio Jordão da Silva issued a red card to player Josenir Santos Abreu and expelled him from the game after a particularly rough play. Displaying a routine soccer game reaction, Abreu argued the call. The argument grew physical and the two began to fight. The referee pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the player through the chest, killing him. Fans, including Abreu’s friends and family, reacted and rushed to the field where they tied the referee up with rope and began stoning him with rocks. As the referee lost consciousness, the unruly fans took knives and began dismembering the referee, including a particularly gruesome removal of the referee’s head that was mounted on a stick and placed in the center of the soccer field.
Brazilian authorities used photos and video to identify a few of the culprits and noted in an official statement:
“Eyewitness reports have already indicated a few people who were at the scene. We have identified Luis Moraes as the leader of the crime, and he has already been arrested. The other two helped to dismember the victim. We have trails on both. We will arrest them, too, and hold all of those involved accountable. One crime will never justify another.”