AR red card?

[Welpe]

I believe it was one of the ARs or the fourth official that saw the Zindane headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final so it is certainly possible. We all know how that ended up.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Welpe

I believe it was one of the ARs or the fourth official that saw the Zidane headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final so it is certainly possible. We all know how that ended up.

The official story from FIFA was that it was the 4th official and he notified the near-side AR who then told the referee as soon as he could obtain his attention.

Personally, I don't buy that explanation, mainly because they were wearing headsets and thus the 4th wouldn't have needed to communicate through the AR. My theory is that the trailing AR, who should have observed the action during live play, but didn't because he was ball-watching while play had shifted to the other end of the field, heard the crowd reaction of those who did see the altercation, then noticed the Italian player on the ground, and so looked up to the large video screen in the stadium on which a replay of the incident was shown. I think that is what caused him to go notify the referee of the offense.