A French referee who pushed a Lens player during Sunday's league game at Bordeaux will no longer officiate at next weekend's Coupe de la Ligue final. Philippe Kalt, 46, swept Adamo Coulibaly aside with his left arm (photo) as he was surrounded by Lens players protesting the yellow card he wanted to show their teammate, Pablo Chavarria.
A former FIFA referee, Kalt had been due to act as fourth official at Saturday night's showpiece between Bastia and Paris Saint-Germain at the Stade de France, but has been relieved of his duties as a consequence of his actions. "There is no ambiguity. You can't push a player like that," Pascal Garibian, the France's technical director of refereeing, told L'Equipe. "Philippe Kalt has acknowledged his reaction was inappropriate and he has today written a letter to the RC Lens president to apologise. We have also decided it is inopportune for Philippe Kalt to be the fourth official at the Coupe de la Ligue final as had been planned. He will therefore be replaced." The incident occurred just after the hour mark of Lens' 2-1 defeat at Bordeaux that all but condemns them to an immediate return to Ligue 2. "I didn't feel I had been assaulted, but afterwards, watching the images, I said to myself that it was a deliberate, aggressive gesture," Coulibaly, 33, told L'Equipe. "If I had done that to a referee, I would have been banned for 15, 20 games, even a year." The striker called for Kalt to be disciplined, adding: "That would be logical, because if a player had done the same thing, he would be punished. If I had been smaller than him, I would have been knocked over by such a gesture."
Should the Federal Refereeing Commission decide to look into the matter, Kalt could face up to three months without being appointed to referee a game, a measure which would signal the end of his career as he is due to retire at the season's conclusion. The French Football League's Disciplinary Commission could also investigate the matter.
Source: ESPN
