A red card in nine seconds? A reality in the French league

We are seeing a lot of red cards in the French league this season. But the one awarded by referee Dechepy in the weekend match between Nice and Angers was exceptional. Jean-Clair Todibo had to leave the field after just 9 seconds of play. How was the French defender guilty?

French side Nice have put together a very interesting team for this season. From the English Premier League came Pepe from Arsenal, Schmeichel from Leicester and Barkley from Chelsea. However, the results of coach Favre’s charges are still below expectations, they are only 13th in the table.

Not even Sunday’s home game against Angers changed that. The narrow 0:1 defeat was largely due to stopper Todibo, who was sent off after just nine seconds of the game for interfering with the escaping Sima, who had previously defended the colours of Slavia.

Angers managed to take advantage of a powerplay in the 43rd minute when Bentaleb scored on the edge of the box. Despite Boufal’s second yellow card in the 62nd minute and a ten-a-side finish, Nice were unable to turn the game around and lost by a narrow one-goal margin.

The 22-year-old stopper made Ligue 1 history with this card, the fastest since the 2006/07 season, when Opta collected data from the French top flight. He thus surpassed Algerian Maxime Span, who went to the booths in a Toulouse jersey in 2014 after 40 seconds of play.

In France this year, the cards have not been spared. Since the start of the season, referees have handed out 34 red cards in the premier league after eight rounds, the highest number across Europe’s top five competitions. The statistics are even crazier in Ligue 2, where referees have shown a staggering 43 red cards.

However, Todibo contributed to yet another record for red cards. In the third round of Ligue 1, a total of 11 red cards were issued across all matches, breaking the record (10) set in the 1991/92 season. The French stopper was one of the 11 players sent off.

Source: Givemesport, Livesport, Getfootballnewsfrance