There are many reasons a player can be sent off in a game – reckless tackles, two yellow cards, even swearing at the referee in some occasions. But Swedish football saw a bizarre new offence which seems incredibly harsh.

In what was apparently a rather impressive fart during a ninth-tier football clash, Adam Lindin Ljungkvist who plays for Pershagen SK, was sent off for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” when he farted loudly in his side’s game against and Jarna SK’s reserves.

It was reported that the game was almost over and, having apparently already been given a yellow card, he released wind and was booked for the second time.

While reacting on the incident, the player said, “I needed to fart, I had a bad stomach so I just farted. Then I received a yellow card and then a red.

“I was shocked, it’s the strangest thing I have ever experienced on a football field. I asked the referee: ‘What, you can’t fart on the field?’, he replied: ‘No’.

He does, however, have a theory as to why he was sent off: “He may have thought that I farted in my hand and threw it towards him, but he didn’t say,” he told Lanstidningen Sodertalje.

The footballer who farted during a football match

Speaking on the incident, the referee, Dany Kako, cleared up the situation, stating that he indeed sent the player off for passing gas. “I perceive that it is a provocation against another player. He did it on purpose and it was inappropriate behaviour. Therefore, he received a yellow card.”

The referee however admitted that it is an absurd situation. “Yes. No one must get a yellow card for farting on the field. Once there was a player who stood and peed next to the pitch. That was also a yellow card.”

According to the opposition striker, Kristoffer Linde, he heard the fart and testified to how loud it was. “I was standing a good distance away but I heard the fart loud and clear. It was the strangest thing I’ve seen on the field, and I have been playing football since I was eight years old.”