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Jean Clair Todibo
Photo: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
Former Bundesliga footballer Jean-Clair Todibo has provided one of the quickest dismissals in French Ligue 1 history.
The OGC Nice defender brought down his opponent Abdallah Sima five seconds after kick-off in the league game against SCO Angers (0-1).
Referee Bastien Dechepy decided on the emergency brake.
Four seconds passed before the referee pulled out the red card.
Even after studying the video images, the decision was valid.
Coached by Bundesliga veteran Lucien Favre, Nice had not even touched the ball before the team was reduced to ten players.
"I don't think it was a red card," Favre said after the game, saying that other OGC players could have intervened.
'It wasn't a scoring chance.
We would have won the game if we had played with eleven players," said the Swiss.
"Questionable, even scandalous"
Todibo, who was loaned to Schalke 04 in 2020, criticized the referee and the French Liga LFP on social media.
"An arbitrary decision that shocks me and condemns my team to start the game with a big disadvantage," wrote the 22-year-old.
"The decisions made by the referees earlier this season are very questionable, even scandalous, and I hope the LFP will do something about it."
It is unclear whether this red card is a case for the history books.
In Ligue 1 there has not been a faster dismissal since at least 2006, since then a statistics service provider has kept accurate records.
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