53 Red Cards in One Match: Brazilian U-20 Brawl Smashes the World Record

A Brazilian under-20 semi-final ended with 53 red cards, the most ever recorded in a single match, after a mass brawl at Parque do Sabia in Uberlandia on Sunday. Uberlandia and Mamore were contesting the first leg of a Minas Gerais state championship semi-final when Mamore’s third goal set off a fight involving players, substitutes, coaches and club officials. The referee abandoned the match, filed a police report over threats made against him, and on Wednesday Uberlandia forfeited the second leg, sending Mamore to the final with seven eligible players left.

How did one match produce 53 red cards?

By counting everyone the laws allow a referee to dismiss, not just the 22 players on the pitch. The total breaks down as 43 players, eight members of the coaching staff and two Uberlandia board members. Three players had already been sent off before the brawl, and 40 more players were dismissed after it, TNT Sports reports. Substitutes count, players already substituted count, and staff count, which is how a youth semi-final can produce a number larger than a full matchday squad. The referee’s own report explains why the number is a paper total as much as a visual one: the brawl made it impossible to physically show most of the cards, so the dismissals were entered in his report rather than brandished on the pitch. A playoff abandoned after an attack on the referee is a pattern this desk has seen before, in the Kenyan playoff abandoned after a referee was attacked in Nairobi, but nothing in that file approaches this count.

What started the brawl?

A goal celebration aimed at the wrong bench. Mamore went 3-1 up in the ninth minute of stoppage time, and Davi Fernandes Bittencourt celebrated the goal in front of the Uberlandia bench, directing insults and provocative gestures toward it, according to the referee’s report and Brazilian media accounts carried by Reuters and Stadium United. Uberlandia goalkeeping coach Paulo Sergio Dias dos Santos ran onto the pitch and pushed him, and the confrontation spread to players and staff from both sides. The mood was already foul. Early in the second half, Uberlandia officials had invaded the pitch after one of their players was sent off, demanding the decision be reversed, and the match was halted for 40 minutes before it restarted. The goal did not start the anger. It gave it a target.

What did the referee say in his report?

That the match became impossible to finish, in his own words. Referee Fernando Patrick Drosghic Modesto wrote: “In the 54th minute of the second half, a generalized brawl broke out, making it impossible to show the red cards and to carry out the match-closing protocol. Therefore, owing to all the turmoil and the lack of security, I declared the match ended.” He added that a police report had been filed over threats made against him, TNT Sports reports, and that Mamore’s team had vandalised the dressing room after the match, Reuters reports. His report also alleges six ball attendants joined the violence, Stadium United reports. Military police were called to break up a fight that continued back in the locker rooms, Sports Illustrated reports, and the aftermath left broken doors, sinks, toilets, showers and benches, smashed windows and damaged electrical wiring. The report is now the document everything else hangs on, the way the referee’s report pointed the Vinicius ban to a specific article in the Madrid case. Abandonment is a familiar endpoint in football, from Rayo Vallecano’s paper-plane protest in Madrid to the Kenyan playoff, but those matches ended over a protest or an attack. This one ended because the referee could not guarantee anyone’s safety.

What was the previous record?

Thirty-six red cards, set in February 2011 in a fifth-division match in Argentina between Atletico Claypole and Victoriano Arenas, a mark that had stood for more than 15 years. The Uberlandia total beats it by 17, and the 43 players alone would break it. The record has a caveat worth stating plainly. Guinness’s public listing still names the 2011 match as its benchmark, Stadium United reports, and Sports Illustrated notes the organisation focuses on professional matches and is not expected to announce a new record for a youth state semi-final. The 53 is the highest number ever recorded in a match, whether or not it enters the Guinness books. The scale of it is what matters: a referee dismissing more people than most squads employ, in a game that was supposed to decide a place in a final.

What happened to the second leg?

Uberlandia gave it up. On Wednesday the club said it would forfeit the second leg as a gesture of fair play, because Mamore did not have enough eligible players to field a team, Reuters reports. “The club has also not remained silent: the appropriate disciplinary measures regarding those involved have already been taken internally, because athletic development is, above all, a matter of personal development,” Uberlandia added. The forfeit sent Mamore to the final, and the club’s statement accepted that outcome: “Verdao seeks its victories on the field, with merit and respect for the opponent, and therefore recognizes Mamore’s qualification for the final,” Sports Illustrated quotes it as saying. A place in the final also brings promotion to the first division of the state’s under-20 championship, which is why the forfeit stings even as a gesture. The tie was decided not by the second leg but by a disciplinary count.

What happens next?

The police and the tribunal take over, and the final itself is in doubt. Police are investigating whether any further charges need to be brought against any of the individuals involved, Sports Illustrated reports, and under the Minas Gerais federation’s regulations the expelled players and technical staff are automatically barred from the next match in the same competition, even before the sports tribunal considers further punishment. Federation discipline after a flashpoint is a familiar process: when Suriname called on FIFA and Concacaf to act over a racist abuse allegation, the complaint went to the governing bodies rather than staying on the pitch. Mamore vice-president Edson Reis said the club planned to seek relief for some players and ask for Uberlandia’s exclusion from the competition, arguing punishments should reflect each person’s involvement and claiming his players and staff were defending themselves amid inadequate security, Stadium United reports. The damage is a separate dispute: police told O TEMPO that roughly 14 doors, bathroom fixtures, electrical wiring and other equipment were damaged, including two whirlpool baths, while Uberlandia officials blamed the visiting delegation and the police account did not individually identify those responsible. The winners of the tie have seven eligible players left and a final to play. That is the paradox the forfeit created, and it is why this story will not end with the record. The count is settled. The team that has to play next is not.