Footballer banned for 50 years after kicking ball in ref's face

By Mirror; November 1st 2014 

An angry footballer in Switzerland has felt the full force of his local game's governing body after he booted a ball into a referee's face... and then sprayed him with water.

Ricardo Ferreira of Portugal Dutebol Clube in the Swiss fourth-tier was an unused substitute in his side's 1-0 defeat to SC Worb, but he let his frustration out at the end of the local Bern league fixture.

Disgruntled with decisions made in the match, the bench warmer kicked the football at the referee's face, before launching into a tirade of abuse as he walked down the tunnel, according to Swiss newspaper Blick.

He then squirted water at the official, earning him an indefinite ban from the game, programmed at 50 years in the computer systems.

Ferreira, 28, understood that he was going to get a hefty fine, but insists that the ban is life-changing for him.

“I had expected one or two years maximum. But 50 years? Football’s my life,” he said.

It is not the first time that Ferreira has landed himself in bother for abusing an official.

He has already served a bumper 45-game suspension after being found guilty of assaulting opposition players and abusing officials.

“We do not want such a player in our league,” said Robert Breiter, a lawyer for the Swiss amateur league. “Unfortunately we encounter such cases about once a year.”

Ferreira's ban is officially indefinite, but due to computer programming reasons, the governing body had to set an end date to the ban, which was set for 5th June, 2064 - when the player is 78-years-old.