A 20-year-old French referee was attacked by his own assistant during the game between the Under-17 teams Tourrette-Levens and Montet-Bornala, in the region of Nice, France. In the absence of the official assistant referees, the referee asked each team to provide a “linesman”. Everything went well until the referee sent off two players from Montet. At that moment, the "linesman" who was nominated by that team, took the corner flag and hit the referee in the face. "There was a lot of confusion around the referee. He was firstly insulted and then the linesman took the stick that served as the corner flag and threw it against his face” said the captain of Tourrette-Levens, who won 4-3. The injuries were not serious, but the young referee was in "shock", explained one of the people responsible for football in the French region of Cote-D’Azur, Claude Colombo (foto), a former international referee. "We went to visit him in the hospital and did not recognize him", said Colombo. The President of the Montet-Bornala, Gerard Pignon, was bothered by what happened. "I am more annoyed than you may think", he stated. However, this is not unheard of in football at Nice. On 30 October, the referee of a match between the “veterans” teams of Cap d’Ail and Saint-Jean-Beaulieu was pursued and had to take refuge in the dressing room of a tennis club situated nearby.Source: Football Plus
