“A penalty kick… Oh! This is too dramatic!” The commentator changed his tune in time as he saw that the referee did not point towards the penalty kick spot after he whistled. Instead, he ran towards Anelka, lying on the ground with his hand on his chest pocket.
Twain gaped in shock on the sidelines. He could hardly believe his eyes.
After a brief silence in the stands, a shrill jeering suddenly rang out.
The Forest players had originally rushed towards Anelka, ready to embrace him in celebration. But instead, they turned towards the referee midway.
Anelka jumped up from the ground when he saw the referee’s hand reach into his chest pocket. He darted to the front of the referee and grabbed the referee’s hand. He tried to push the yellow corner back into his pocket.
“I did not dive! They fouled! It’s a foul!” He widened his eyes and argued. Usually aloof and detached on the field, the French striker suddenly became emotionally agitated. “I’m not faking it! Damn…”
He knew what it meant if the referee pulled his hand out. But could he just stop the referee like that?
The referee jerked back by a step and broke free of Anelka’s hands. With a grim expression, he pulled a yellow card out of his chest pocket.
“This is Anelka’s second yellow card of the game!”
The Forest players surrounded the referee to try to stop him from pulling out the other colored card. Anelka was stunned for a second, and suddenly frantically wanted to rush into the crowd. But he was tightly held back by his two French compatriots, Ribéry and Chimbonda. They did not know what would happen if Anelka rushed in. But it was frightening to look at his ferocious expression.
“I did not dive! I did not! I did not do a damn dive!” Anelka, who was being held tightly, roared outside the crowd. But he could not change anything.
A hand raised in the crowd. At the top was a red card, a bright red which was brighter than the Forest team’s jersey.
Everyone looked up at the red card, including Anelka.
When he saw the red card, he suddenly stopped the senseless shouting and quieted down.
“Red card! Leave the field!”
Ribéry and Chimbonda felt that Anelka suddenly no longer struggled within their grip. So they slowly released their grip. But they still hung around closely, just in case.
Anelka suddenly sneered and then turned to leave the field.
The hissing over the City Ground stadium was deafening. No other sound could be heard.
※※※
On the sidelines, Twain was so angry that he stopped the fourth official, England’s golden whistle, Graham Poll. He growled like an angry lion. “Check the monitor! Look at the big screen! Which of the referees saw Anelka dive?! Dammit!”
“Mr. Twain, please mind your language,” Poll warned.
“Mind my language? What do you want me to do? My player has been wronged, and you want me to mind my language? Fine. You have that authority.” Twain nodded and then jabbed his finger towards the referee on the field. “Then how the hell am I going to remind that bastard to pay attention to his refereeing? Mr. Poll, you’re the golden whistle. You go look at the game monitor. Look at it! And see if it’s a dive or not!”
Poll shook his head. “I’m sorry, Mr. Twain. Maybe it’s misjudged, but the referee can’t decide based a scene from the television broadcast. That’s a FIFA regulation.”
“To hell with the damn rules!” Twain brandished his fist and suddenly turned back to the technical area.
Poll looked at Twain’s angry figure and shook his head helplessly. It was not the first time he had dealt with this manager. He knew he could be a little outspoken when he was agitated. He thought about it and did not write the incident into the game report. The penalty just now was a mistake. Anelka’s breakthrough was clean. The Nigerian had turned slowly, and his foot had tripped the French striker, causing him to fall.
It was just a shame that Johnson, the referee of the game, was too young to have enough experience to enforce properly in the Premier League game. Even if the penalty was for a dive, there was no need for a yellow card. It was another mistake upon a mistake.
He turned to look at the top of the main stand. In an area unknown to him, there would be two supervisors from the Referees’ Association who were responsible for scoring the referee’s performance for each game. Those with low scores would be ordered to halt their enforcement of the Premier League level competitions. This would affect their incomes and application plus the assessment for their international refereeing qualifications.
※※※
“Anelka was sent off by a red card, which means he will not be able to appear with the team at Highbury in the next round of the league.” The commentator shook his head and said, “From the replay, that is indeed a misjudgment. The referee, Stephen Johnson, with only seven games of English Premier League experience, has made a mistake in this intense competition. It’s really a shame. Because of a young referee’s mistake, Anelka has to miss the match with Arsenal. It’s not unreasonable for Manager Twain to fly into a rage on the sidelines. His team’s main striker, the team’s top scorer, and the attacking core will be absent for the next big game against Arsenal due to an error in judgment!”
※※※
Treated unfairly by the referee, the Forest team with one player short broke out with a more powerful attack. In the final stage of the game, the Forest team was awarded a direct free kick in the front field. Arteta took the free kick and shot the ball into the Everton goal. The Forest team finally defeated Everton by 2:1 at the last minute.
At the post-match press conference, the referee’s decision became the focus of everyone’s attention. Twain naturally did not let go of his opportunity. Despite his team’s victory, he still harshly castigated the young referee for his performance.
“Yes, it’s stipulated in the game regulations that the penalty should be severe for a dive and the player doing the flop must be shown the yellow card. But I would like to ask Mr. Stephen Johnson this. Are you sure you saw Anelka do a flop? The rules are used to crack down on the real deceivers, not to let you flaunt your authority in front of the players!”
“We’ll sort out the video clips of this game, and then we’ll appeal to the league committee.”
※※※
The next morning, the Forest team submitted the video of the game and documents for the appeal to the league committee. But given the bureaucratic style of England and the fact that there were only two days left before the game with Arsenal, no one knew if Anelka could appear in Highbury.