So, I got curious the other day, really went down a bit of a rabbit hole thinking about those really chaotic soccer games. You know, the ones where things just totally fly off the handle. My main thought was, what’s the absolute limit? Like, what’s the most red cards anyone’s ever seen in a single game?
I started digging around online, just typing in stuff like “most red cards ever soccer match” and similar things. You get a lot of different results, naturally. It’s not always straightforward.
Player Records First
First thing that popped up that caught my eye was about individual players. Found this one guy, Gerardo Bedoya. Colombian player. Apparently, this dude holds the record for getting sent off the most times in his career. The number? 46 red cards! Can you even imagine? 46 times! Played a lot in South America, got 49 caps for his country too, so he wasn’t just some random hothead, must have been decent but fiery.
Then, The Matches…
Okay, so one guy getting 46 reds over a career is nuts, but I was still thinking about single games. I looked specifically for Premier League games, figuring maybe some big derby match got out of control.
What I found was kinda interesting. There isn’t one single game that stands way out. Instead, there are like 5 different games tied for the most reds in one Premier League match. And the number? Just 3 red cards in the game. Felt a bit low, honestly, thought it’d be higher.
- I remember seeing Arsenal on that list, back in 2015.
- Sunderland was another one, maybe 2013?
- Newcastle too, way back in 2005.
So, 3 seems to be the ceiling for the Premier League, at least based on what I could quickly find.
Game Over Rules
While I was looking this up, I also got reminded of the basic rules. Makes sense when you think about it. Once a player gets a red card, they’re gone. Off the field, can’t even hang around the bench area, gotta leave.
And the big one: if a team gets too many players sent off – specifically, if they end up with 5 red cards – the game is forfeited. You can’t play with fewer than 7 players on the field. So, I guess there’s a hard limit built into the rules before total chaos completely takes over. You won’t see a team ending with like, 3 players on the pitch.
Anyway, that was my little dive into the world of red cards. Crazy stuff sometimes in soccer, keeps things interesting I suppose!
