A Russian boys football team called Cosmos was thrown out of the Norway Cup youth football tournament in Oslo, after its players were said to have “gone berserk” on the field, violently attacking their rivals.
Young opposing players from the Norwegian boys’ team Herd were kicked and beaten on the field, according to Herd’s shocked coach Trond Lervik. “We had been warned in advance they were a physical team, but we’d never seen anything like it,” Lervik told newspaper Sunnmørsposten.
Herd had scored a two goals and had good control over the ball, reported the paper, which apparently irritated the Russian Cosmos players. “They got steadily more aggressive, and their play became more like attacks than normal tackling,” Lervik said. A referee talked with the Cosmos coach, warning him to control his players, but the Russian coach reportedly only shrugged his shoulders.
The attacks started when Cosmos’ goalkeeper kicked a Herd player. The referee immediately issued a red card against him and he had to leave the field, but he later returned, subjecting one Herd player to what a shocked father called a “karate kick,” while fellow Cosmos players attacked other Herd players as they were leaving the field after the match ended.
Police were called and they questioned several Herd players but the Cosmos team had already quickly left. On Wednesday night, Norway Cup officials fined Cosmos NOK 2,000 and excluded the team from further play. The tournament’s jury claimed the ruling was final and could not be appealed. There was no immediate reaction from the Cosmos team.
newsinenglish.no staff