It’s not all that rare to see television commentators be critical of officials, but it’s remarkable to see the officials strike back and force a commentator to leave the game over critical comments. That’s what happened Friday in a soccer game in Costa Rica’s second division, though, where the TV broadcast was set up right by the sideline. The assistant referee apparently overheard commentator Henry de Jesus Diaz criticize referee Jimmy Torres and passed that on, and Torres then told Diaz to leave or he wouldn’t resume play. Diaz eventually was escorted out of the stadium. Here’s video of what happened:
It’s highly unusual to see that kind of backlash from an official against TV criticism, but hey, you never know what will happen with CONCACAF officiating. This looks like a pretty severe overreach from the referee, though, and it seems unlikely this is going to spread, as much fun as it might be to consider Ed Hochuli tossing Jon Gruden out of a stadium…
